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^apyright, 1897, by D. H. Montgomery 



^be Xea&tng jfacts ot Ibtstors Sevies 



THE STUDENT'S 

AMERICAN HISTORY 



D. H. MONTGOMERY 

Author of "The Lkadinij Facts of History" Series 



REVISED EDITION 



GINN & COMPANY 

BOSTON . NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 



UBRARY of OONfiRESS 
Two Oeptm rtwwvwi 

6&u&'Si ^ AXc. Hoi 
copy 0. 






LEADING FACTS 
OF HISTORY SERIES 

By D. H. MONTGOMERY 
Beginner's American History 

(Biographies of Eminent Americans) 
List price, 60 cents 

An Elementary American History 
List price, 75 cents ' ■" 

The Leading Facts of American History 
List price, $1.00 

The Student's American History (Rev. Ed.) 
List price, $1.40 

The Leading Facts of EngHsh History 
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The Leading Facts of French History 
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'd'OPYRIGHT, 1897, 1899, 1901, 1905, BY 

D. H. MONTGOMERY 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

85.2 



Co tbe /nbemoc^ 

ot 

H« IB. p. 



PREFATORY NOTE 

This work follows the same general lines as the author's " Tread- 
ing Facts of American History." It differs, however, from the 
more elementary manual in many important respects. It is much 
fuller in its treatment of poHtical and constitutional history, and 
of the chief events bearing on the development of the nation. 
It quotes the statements of public men, original documents, and 
authorities in order that the history of our country may speak 
for itself on the points of greatest interest to the student and 
the teacher. 

As a help to further research, references are made in foot- 
notes to a limited number of works of acknowledged merit, and 
a classified list of books on subjects and periods will be found 
in the Appendix. 

The author is particularly indebted to the Trustees and the 
Librarian of the Boston Athenjeum for the privilege of making 
use of the admirable collection of books under their charge. 



CONTENTS 

SECTION PAGE 

I. The Discovery and Naming of America (1000-15 15) .... 1 

II. Attempts at Exploring and Colonizing America (the Country, 
the Natives, Effects of the Discovery of America on Europe) 
(1513-1600) 13 

III. Permanent English and French Settlements (the Thirteen Col- 

onies, French Exploration of the West, Wars with the In- 
dians and with the French, Colonial Life) (1600- 1763) . . 31 

IV. The Revolution, the Constitution (i 763-1 789) 177 

V. The Union, National Development (Presidents from Washing- 
ton to Buchanan, inclusive) (1789-1861) 239 

VI. The War of Secession (1861-1865) 443 

VII. Reconstruction, the New Nation (1865 ^^ ^'"^^ Present Time) . 512 

APPENDIX 

1. The Declaration of Independence (with an Introduction) . . . i 

2. The Constitution (with an Introduction and Notes) .... vi 

3. Table of Admission of States xix 

4. Table of Presidents xxiii 

5. List of Books on American History xxiv 

6. Table of Boundaries of the United States xxx 

7. Tables of Population and Representation xxxii 

8. Index xxxvii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



1. Medallion of Washington and Lincoln Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

2. Governor Cosby's Proclamation 60 

3. Extract from the Massachusetts " Body of Liberties" of 164 1 . 78 

4. A Colonial Bank Note 164 

5. Advertisement of the " Flying Machine " 166 

6. The Pennsylvania Gazette on the Stamp Act t8o 

7. Franklin's Letter to Strahan 200 

8. Signatures to the Declaration of Independence 202 

9. A Call for Volunteers for the War for Independence .... 204 

10. Continental Paper Money 212 

11. George Rogers Clark's Letter demanding Hamilton's Surrender 216 

12. Signatures to the Treaty of Peace of 1783 224 

13. Abstract of Constitutional Decisions by the Supreme Court of 

the United States, 1793-1835; with portrait of Chief Justice 

Marshall 266 

14. Fitch's Letter on his Steamboat ; Fulton's Steamboat .... 280 

15. Key's " The Star-Spangled Banner" 298 

r6. The National Road, with map 320 

17. The Monroe Doctrine 322 

18. A Railway Time-Table of 1843 ' • • • 346 

19. Morse's Letter respecting the First Telegram 378 

20. Letter of John Brown 43- 

21. Secession Bulletin 43^ 

22. Letter of Secretary Dix on the Flag 43^ 

23. Advertisements for Volunteers for the War for the Union . . . 450 

24. Grant's " Unconditional Surrender" Dispatch 462 

25. Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation 474 

26. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 4^4 

27. Admiral Farragut's Letter from Mobile 502 

28. Lee's Letter of Surrender 5^6 

29. Vote on the Impeachment Trial of President Johnson .... 524 

30. Diagram and Statistics showing Increase of Manufactures, espe- 

cially Iron and Steel, with Imports and Exports 582 

X 



LIST OF FULL AND DOUBLE PAGE MAPS i 

PAGE 

1. The World about the Time of Columbus 5 

2. Early Voyages to America (colored) 19 

3. Indian Tribes of the United vStates (colored) 20 

4. Indian Trails 23 

5. Physical Features of the United States 29 

6. First Settlements made on the Eastern Coast of America ... 49 

7. The French in the West 139 

8. The Louisiana Country claimed by La Salle for France .... 143 

9. The King's Proclamation Line, 1763 155 

10. Period of the Revolution — New England (colored) 190 

11. Period of the Revolution — Middle Colonies (colored) .... 206 

12. Burgoyne's Expedition; W^ashington's Movement against York- 

town ; Yorktown 209 

13. Period of the Revolution — Southern States (colored) .... 218 

14. The United States at the Close of the Revolution (colored) . . 226 

15. The Northwest Territory (colored) 228 

16. The United States in 1792 (colored) 250 

17. Indian Land Cessions in Ohio 254 

18. The United States at the Census of 1800 269 

19. The W^ar of 1812 296 

20. The Mexican War 384 

21. The Area of Freedom and of Slavery in 1857 . " 423 

22. The Civil War (colored) 45^ 

23. The Defenses of Washington 459 

24. The Battle of Gettysburg ' 481 

25. The Siege of Vicksburg 4^7 

26. Possessions of the United States in North America 527 

27. Territorial Growth of the United States (colored) 556 

28. The United States at the Present Time (colored) 570 

29. The United States and Dependent Territories (colored) . . . 590 

1 For list of maps in the text, see Index under " Maps." 



THE 

STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY^ 

I 

THE DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF AMERICA^ 

(1000-15 1 5) 

For autJiorities for this chapter, see footnotes and the classified 
list of books in the Appendix, page xxiv 

THE NORTHMEN — COLUMBUS — CABOT — AMERICUS VESPUCIUS 

I. The discovery of America by the Northmen ; ^ " Vinland the 
Good." The Scandinavians, or Northmen, were the most skillful 
and daring sailors of the middle ages. For them the x\tlantic — 
" the Sea of Darkness " — had no terrors. Before the mariner's 
compass had come into use in Europe they made distant voyages 
in vessels often not so large as modern pleasure yachts. Their 
only guides on those perilous expeditions were the sun, the stars, 
and the flight of birds. 

In the ninth century the Northmen conquered a large part of 
England ; they also planted a colony in Iceland. Their sagas or 

1 In using this book the following-named works of reference by Professor William 
Macdonald, of Brown University, will be constantly found of the greatest value: 
(i) Select Charters, etc., of American History (1606-1775) ; (2) Select Documents of 
United States History (1776-1861) ; (3) Select Statutes of United States History 
(1861-1898). For other works of reference, see Appendix, page xxiv. 

2 See, in general, Winsor's America, II, ch. i, ii ; Fiske's Discovery of America, 
1, ch. ii, v, vi ; II, ch. vii. 

8 See Winsor's America, I, ch. ii ; Bryant and Gay's United States (revised 
edition), I, ch. iii; Fiske's Discovery of America, I, 164-220, 253-255; Fischer's 
The Norsemen in America ; Thwaites' Colonies, 21-23. 

I 



2 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [looo-m? 

traditions inform us that, late in the next century (981), Eric the 
Red set sail from Iceland in search of a strange land which a 
Norse sailor, blown out of his course, had sighted in the far West. 
He found it, and, giving it the tempting name of Greenland, 
lured a band of colonists to those desolate shores. About the 
year 1000 Leif Ericson, — later known as " Leif the Lucky," — ■ 
a son of Eric the Red, set out from Greenland in quest of a land 
which a storm-driven mariner had seen in the southwest. He 
discovered a beautiful country which abounded in wild grapes. 
'' From its products Leif gave the land a name, and called it 
Vinland." Here the Northmen planted a colony and carried 
on trade with Greenland. In 1347 the Norse records mention 
a ship's going to this southern colony after a load of timber. 
That is the last that we hear of the settlement. The North- 
men ceased to make voyages to the west, the colonies they had 
planted died out, all records of them were forgotten, and we 
have no evidence that Columbus ever heard of the discovery 
of Vinland. 

2. The locality of "Vinland"; the Northmen and American 
history. In recent years repeated attempts have been made to 
determine the locality of Vinland, but without acknowledged 
success. Many have supposed that Leif Ericson landed on some 
part of the New England coast. The descriptions of the country 
given by the records fail to throw any decisive light on this point, 
and no Norse graves, inscriptions, or ruins have been found on 
the mainland of America, although the ruins of buildings erected 
by the Northmen are still standing in Greenland. 

The conclusion of most eminent scholars respecting the settle- 
ments of the Northmen is that " the soil of the United States has 
not one vestige of their presence." Granting that those bold 
sailors did establish colonies on the mainland of America, as it is 
certain they did on the coast of Greenland, still their work had 
no permanent results and no direct connection with American 
history. It was simply a match struck in the dark, sending out 
a momentary flash of light, but nothing more. 



1420-1487] DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF AMERICA 3 

After Columbus made his great voyage, the EngHsh descendants 
of the Northmen, who had conquered and held half of Britain, 
came to the front. As colonists of the New World they set their 
lasting mark on this continent. Hence we may say that the old 
Norse daring, which braved the tempests of the Northern Atlantic 
centuries before Columbus was born, stands forth a powerful factor 
in the making of America. Furthermore, the Scandinavian immi- 
gration to-day lends its strength to the republic. 

3. A new search for lands beyond the Atlantic ; European trade 
with the Indies. Nearly five hundred years after Leif Ericson 
feasted on wild grapes in Vinland, the project of crossing the 




Trade Route to the Indies 



Atlantic in quest of distant lands again came up. This time it 
was not a Northman, but an Italian, who was to make the attempt. 
His venture was suggested by the demands of commerce. 

In the latter part of the fifteenth century Venice had gained 
control of the lucrative trade between Europe and the Indies. 
That trade, however, was seriously hampered by the fact that 
it could not follow a direct and continuous water route. The 



4 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1420-1487] 

Isthmus of Suez barred the way. For this reason, the spices, 
silks, and drugs brought from the far East up the Red Sea had 
to be unloaded, transported across the desert to the Nile, and 
reshipped to Alexandria for the Mediterranean. Europe in the 
interest of trade called for an all-sea route to the Indies. 

4. The work of " Prince Henry the Navigator " ; Bartholomew 
Diaz. Prince Henry of Portugal, commonly known as " Prince 
Henry the Navigator," undertook to find the required route. For 
forty years (1420—1460) his captains were exploring the seem- 
ingly endless western coast of Africa, endeavoring to discover a 
way around that mysterious continent into the waters of the Indian 
Ocean. Year after year the Portuguese ships crept down that 
coast, but found no passage to the East. The problem was 
unsolved when Henry died, but nearly thirty years later success 
was practically gained. Bartholomew Diaz (1487) succeeded in 
doubling the formidable Cape of Storms. 

Then it was seen that at last the way to the Indies was almost 
as good as opened ; for that reason the Cape of Storms received 
the auspicious name of the Cape of Good Hope. But the length 
of the new route was a serious drawback, since every bale of goods 
shipped from the East would have to make a voyage of at least 
twelve thousand miles in order to reach the European market. 
The question arose, might it not be possible to find a better way? 

5. Columbus^ proposes a new and shorter ro^jte to the Indies. 
Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, was ready to answer 
that question. He was an experienced mariner, and believed 
that he could discover a far shorter and more direct all-water 
route to the much-coveted Indies. The leading geographers of 
that day regarded the earth as a globe. Columbus held the same 
idea, but he considered the globe to be much smaller than it 
actually is. It embraced, as he supposed, but one ocean — the 
Atlantic — which surrounded the three continents of Europe, 
Asiaj-and Africa. 

1 See Winsor's America, II, ch. i, iii, ix ; Fiske's Discovery of America, I, ch. v, 
and 515-516. 



The World as known shortly before and shortly after 
THE Sailing of Columbus 

Light arrows show voyages made up to 1492 ; (light track, Da Gama's voyage, 1497). 
Dark arrows, voyages of Columbus and Cabot. 

White crosses, countries of which something was known before 1492. 
White area, including western coast of Africa, the world as known shortly before the 
sailing of Columbus. 




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Columbus saUed Aug. 3d, /z'^^ \ 


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6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [m-> 

These three continents, with their outlying islands, he believed 
constituted all the land there was. He imagined that the Indies 
faced Europe at a distance of less than four thousand miles. His 
plan for reaching the far East was very simple ; he would make 
for the Canaries, and then sail nearly due west until he touched 
the coast of Asia. Such a route would have an immense advan- 
tage over the circuitous and dangerous voyage around Africa, for 
it would be almost a straight line and would save something like 
eight thousand miles. 

6. Columbus fits out vessels for the voyage ; objects of the 
undertaking. After years of vain solicitation, Columbus succeeded 
in getting the assistance of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. He 
fitted out three small vessels for the voyage; of this Httle fleet 
he w^as to be admiral. To guide him on his course he had the 
compass, an irhproved astrolabe, or instrument for determining 
the position of a ship at sea by taking observations of the sun 
and stars, and his carefully drawn charts. In this great and 
original undertaking Columbus was not seeking to find new lands, 
but a new way to reach old lands. His three chief objects were : 
(i) to open direct trade with the Indies; (2) to carry the 
Catholic faith to the nations of the far East; (3) to gain for 
himself fame and fortune. 

7. Columbus sails ; the voyage ; he discovers land and returns 
to Spain. Columbus sailed from Palos, Spain, August 3, 1492. 
He made directly for the Canary Islands, which he supposed to 
be in a line with Japan. The route to those islands was well 
known. He reached them August 12, and stopped more than 
three weeks to refit his vessels. On September 6 he set out on 
his ever-memorable voyage across the " Sea of Darkness." He 
beheved himself, as he said, "an agent chosen by Heaven to 
accompHsh a grand design." 

Day after day passed, but no land was sighted, and the sailors, 
losing heart, cried out to Columbus: "Are there no graves in 
Spain, that you should bring us here to perish?" They were 
terrified at the variation of the compass, and still later, becoming 



1492-1493] DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF AMERICA 



desperate, they threatened to turn the ship back ; but Columbus 
compelled them to keep on their way, and on October 1 2 land 
was sighted. It was the low, sandy shore of a small island. Here 
he planted the royal standard of Spain, named the island San 
Salvador, or the Holy Redeemer, and took possession of it for 
Ferdinand and Isabella. 

The naked natives crowded around the Spaniards shouting, 
*' Come and see the men who have come from heaven." Going 
south Columbus discovered Cuba, which he believed to be a 
part of the mainland of Asia. Having left a garrison to hold 
a small fort on the coast of San Domingo or Hayti, he set sail 
for Spain (January, 1493). He was certain that he had found 
the Indies, and as he had reached them by sailing west, they 
received the name of the West Indies. For a like reason he 
called the natives of these islands Indians. 

8. Letter of Columbus ; arrival in Spain ; reception at court ; 
the pope divides the earth. Forced to put into Lisbon, Columbus 
there wrote to the royal treasurer of 
Spain describing his discoveries. In 
his letter he declared that he had 
"■ accomplished a task to which the 
power of mortal man had never 
before attained." At Palos all the 
people, forming a solemn procession, 
came out to receive him, and when 
he arrived at the royal court at 
Barcelona the king and queen stood 
up to give him welcome. 

News of the wonderful discovery 
was at once sent to the pope. He 
received the messenger with joy. As '* lord of the world " he 
proceeded to divide the newly discovered heathen lands between 
Spain and Portugal, the two great exploring powers. Taking a 
map of the globe, he drew a line from pole to pole a hundred 
leagues west of the Azores and of the Cape Verde Islands. All 



TM 





The Pope's Division of 
THE World, as finally 

DECIDED IN 1494 



8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1493-1506 

lands found west of that line, not belonging to some Christian 
prince, he granted to Spain ; all similar lands east of it he recog- 
nized as belonging to Portugal.-^ Thus by a stroke of the pen 
through a map of the world the pope gave Spain the entire con- 
tinent of North America. Ferdinand and Isabella soon began 
to establish settlements in the West Indies and seized the natives 
as slaves. 

9. What Columbus discovered ; his death ; greatness of his work. 
In the course of his three subsequent voyages (149 3- 1504) 
Columbus discovered the mainland of Central and South America, 
but never touched any part of what is now the mainland of the 
United States. He died in 1506 in the unshaken beUef that he 
had found the eastern coast of Asia. He did not dream that by 
a happy accident he had actually found a fourth continent — a 
" new world." It has been well said : Nothing hke it was ever 
done before, and nothing like it can ever be done again, for, save 
the island-continent of Australia, Columbus left no new worlds for 
a future explorer to reveal. 

The true glory of the Genoese sailor is that he was the first 
civilized man who dared cross the Atlantic and thus lead the 
way to this fourth continent. His discovery stands forth the 
greatest secular event recorded in the history of the world, — 
one half of which had never suspected the existence of the other 
half. 

10. John and Sebastian Cabot ^ plan a rival route to the Indies. 
When Columbus returned to Spain at the termination of his first 
voyage the news of his discovery created " great talk at the court 
of Henry VII in England." John Cabot, an Italian merchant, 
was then living at the port of Bristol. His son Sebastian says 
that the report of what Columbus had achieved kindled in his 
own heart " a great flame of desire to attempt some notable 



1 In 1494 a conference of the Spanish and Portuguese powers moved the line of 
demarcation two hundred and seventy leagues farther west. This, as will be seen, 
gave Portugal possession of Brazil. 

? See Winsor's America, III, ch. i ; Fiske's Discovery of Ainerica, II, 16. 



1497] 



DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF AMERICA 



9 



thing." The "notable thing" developed itself into a project for 
reaching the Spice Islands of the Indies by sailing westward on 
an extreme northern course so as to pass round the "backside 
of Greenland." 

John Cabot entered into his son's scheme with much enthu- 
siasm, and hoped " to make London a greater place for spices 
than Alexandria." Henry VII issued a patent to the elder 
Cabot and his sons giving them authority to discover and take 
possession of those heathen lands in the west "which before 
this time have been unknown 
to all Christians." 

II. First voyage of the Cab- 
ots ; second voyage ; Newfound- 
land fisheries ; results of the 
first voyage. John Cabot, prob- 
ably accompanied by Sebastian, 
sailed from Bristol in 1497. 
The chief results of the voyage 
were set forth on a map bear- 
ing this inscription : " In the 
year of our Lord 1497, John 
Cabot, a Venetian, and his son, 
Sebastian, . . . discovered that 
land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 
24th of June, about five o'clock in the morning." 

This "land" — marked on the map, "Land First Seen" — 
appears to have been Cape Breton, or some part of the coast not 
far from it. Here the Cabots went ashore, and, hoisting the Eng- 
lish flag, claimed the country for the British crown. The envoy 
of the Duke of Milan wrote to the duke from London of this 
claim, saying, " His Majesty (Henry VII) has won a part of Asia 
without a stroke of the sword." 

The next year (1498) the Cabots sailed westward again. 
They went much farther north in the hope of discovering a 
short passage to the Indies. At this point the elder Cabot 




lO THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [im-m:i 

disappears from history. Sebastian admits that the icebergs which 
blocked his way chilled his enthusiasm and made him turn south- 
ward. He coasted along the American mainland looking for a 
passage through to the East, until, as he says, he reached a point 
" almost equal in latitude with the Straits of Gibraltar." He 
then set his face homeward. 

The reports made by the Cabots of the vast quantities of cod- 
fish seen by them in the vicinity of Newfoundland opened the 
way to the establishment by the English and French of the 
largest fisheries in the world. These fisheries had a very marked 
influence on American colonial history, and have since given rise 
to important international questions. 

But the crowning result of John Cabot's voyage in 1497 was 
that he was the first European (since the days of the Northmen) 
who set foot on the continent of North America. He thus, as 
Burke declares, gave the English their claim to the mainland. 
This laid the foundation for the North American colonies which 
Sir Walter Raleigh began in the next century. 

12. The voyages of Americas Vespucius to the "New World." 
In 1499 (after Columbus had made his third voyage and had 
discovered the mainland at the mouth of the Orinoco) Americus 
Vespucius,^ a Florentine, and a friend of Columbus, sailed with a 
Spanish expedition which explored part of the same coast. Two 
years later (15 01) he made another voyage and touched Brazil. 
On his return he suggested that the lands he had visited in the 
south should be called the " New World." The next year (1503) 
Vespucius again visited South America and built a fort on the 
coast of Brazil. On his return he wrote a brief account of his 
voyages, but the original manuscript has never been found. 

13. How America received its name. A copy of the account 
written by Vespucius chanced to fall into the hands of a German 

1 The question whether Vespucius made an earlier voyage (1497) is still a matter 
of controversy. See Winsor's America, II, 129-179. In case he made the voyage 
of 1497, he may have discovered the mainland of the western continent a week or 
two before the Cabots did (§ ii). Scholars differ, too, in regard to their acceptance 
of his other statements. See Larned's Literature of American History, I, 64-65. 



1507-1728] DISCOVERY AND NAMING OF AMERICA 1 1 




The Village of St. Die, Eastern France 



named Waldseemiiller. He was a teacher of geography in the 
college of St. Die — a village of Lorraine now included in eastern 
France. The college owned a small press on which, in 1507, 
Waldseemiiller printed a thin Latin pamphlet bearing the title 
"An Introduction to Geography." In it he described the three 
continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa ; he then gave an account of 
the voyages of Americus Vespucius, and closed by saying, " The 
fourth part of the world having been discovered by Americus, it 
may be called . . . the 
land of Americus, or 
America. '' 

The suggestion met 
with favor. On a Ger- 
man globe made in 
1 5 1 5 we find America 
standing out in bold 
letters on what appears 
to be a great southern island in the western Atlantic (see map 
on page 12). The name was at first confined to South America; 
later it was applied to both of the western continents. 

14. How it was discovered that America was a continent; 
Magellan ; Bering. For a long time North America was laid 
down on the maps of that period as an island. The true con- 
tinental character of the New World was discovered gradually. 
Cabot and Vespucius must have suspected it, but it was not until 
Magellan made his famous voyage around the globe (1519-1521) 
that the evidence became strong. The Spanish explorers of the 
Pacific coast, and Sir Francis Drake, in his voyage around the 
world (157 7- 157 9), confirmed that evidence. 

But even then the actual breadth of North America was not 
clearly recognized, and as late as Henry Hudson's expedition 
(1609) European navigators thought that they might find a short 
passage through the northern continent to the Pacific. In the 
next century Vitus Bering, the Danish explorer (1728), sailed 
through the straits which have since borne his name and proved 



C 



12 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1856 



that America was not attached to Asia in that quarter. In 1856 
the discovery of the Northwest Passage completed this process 
and showed that America is absokitely disconnected from Asia. 

15. Summary. About the year 1000 Leif Ericson, a North- 
man, discovered Vinland on the North American coast ; but in 
the course of a few centuries all knowledge of Vinland was lost. 
In 1492 Columbus in searching for a new route to the Indies 
discovered the West India Islands. In 1497 John Cabot landed 
on the North American continent and claimed it for the English 
crown. England considered that this claim gave her the right 
to plant colonies in America. 

Between 1499 and 1503 Americus Vespucius made three voyages 
to the South American coast. His description of the New World 
suggested the name America, which was given to South America, 
and later extended to the northern continent. The true char- 
acter of North America was discovered by Magellan, Drake, the 
Spanish explorers of the Pacific coast, Captain Bering, and his 
successors. 




£guafor 



H/\5pan/o/a 







II 



ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORING AND COLONIZING 
AMERICA 1 

(1513-1600) 

For authorities for this chapter, see footnotes and the classified 
list of books in the Appendix, pagexxiv 

THE COUNTRY— THE NATIVES — EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERY OF 
AMERICA ON EUROPE 

16. The miraculous spring ; Ponce de Leon discovers Florida. 

Early in the sixteenth century a Portuguese historian wrote to the 
pope, "There is an island about three hundred and fifty leagues 
from Hispaniola (Hayti) ... on which is a never-failing spring 
of such marvelous efficacy that when the water is drunk, perhaps 
with some attention to diet, it makes old people young again." 

Ponce de Leon, a Spanish cavalier, who was, as his epitaph 
declared, " a Hon by name and still more by nature," resolved to 
set out in search of this marvelous spring. He hoped thereby to 
find new lands and new life at the same time. It was a compli- 
ment to America that men believed it could give all things, not 
only gold and fame but even one's lost youth. 

De Leon sailed (15 13) from Porto Rico with a picked crew in 
search of the miraculous fountain. On Easter Day — in Spanish 
called Pascua Florida, or "Flowery Easter" — they discovered 
land. De Leon and his men went ashore a few miles north of 
where the Spaniards later founded St. Augustine. He called the 

1 See, in general, Winsor's America, II, ch. iii, iv; III, ch. iv; Parkman's Pioneers 
of France in the New World, ch. vii-ix; Fiske's Discovery of America, II, 500-522 ; 
Thwaites' Colonies, 27-32, 33-34. 

13 



14 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1513-1543 

land Florida from the name of the day on which he had discovered 
it. Later (152 1) he returned to colonize Florida. The Indians 
resisted his attempt to seize their country, and in the fight the 
stout-hearted old cavalier received his death wound. 

17. Balboa discovers a new ocean ; Magellan names it ; Spanish 
exploration of the Pacific coast. Meanwhile Balboa, the Spanish 
governor of a colony on the Isthmus of Darien, set out (15 13) 
to discover a sea said to exist in the southw^est. After an ex- 
hausting march of nearly three weeks, over rocky hills and 
through vine-tangled forests, the expedition reached the foot of 
a mountain, where he called a halt. Climbing to the top of this 
height, the Spaniard looked down upon the shining w^aters of the 
"South Sea." 

No white man had ever before beheld that greatest of the oceans 
of the globe ; next after Columbus, Balboa had made the most 
remarkable geographical discovery recorded in history. A few 
days later, wading into the waters of that sea, he drew his sword 
and declared that the kings of Spain would hold possession of the 
South Sea and of its coasts and islands " while the earth revolves, 
and until the universal judgment of mankind." 

Seven years later (1520) Magellan entered that ocean on his 
voyage around the globe. He found its waters so calm that he 
named it the Pacific. 

Cortez had begun the conquest of Mexico, and in the course of 
a httle more than twenty years (15 20-1 543) Spain had explored 
the Pacific coast of North America as far as Oregon. 

18. Narvaez attempts to conquer Florida; the adventures of 
Cabeza de Vaca. While Cortez was plundering Mexico, Narvaez 
started from Spain (1528) to conquer Florida, but lost his life 
in the undertaking. Cabeza de Vaca and three survivors of the 
expedition were wrecked on the coast of Texas. 

He and his companions managed to escape from a long cap- 
tivity among the Indians, and set out to cross the countr)- to the 
Spanish settlements on the Pacific coast. After two years of 
wandering they arrived (1538) at the city of Mexico. 



1539-1542] EXPLORING AND COLONIZINC; AMERICA 15 

Cabeza carried to the Spaniards of the Pacific coast reports 
ul the existence of the wonderful ston<*' and adobe cities of the 
Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. This led to the great 
exploring expedition undertaken (1540) by Coronado. 

19. De Soto's expedition; the Indians. When Cabeza returned 
to Spain he reported that Florida was " the richest country in the 
world." Ferdinand de Soto, who had been with Pizarro in South 
America, heard this report with savage delight. He Hked the 
"sport of kilHng Indians," and hoped to strip the Plorida chiefs 
of their gold as Pizarro'had stripped the unfortunate ruler of Peru. 

In 1539 De Soto landed with an army of six hundred men at 
Tampa Bay, Florida. The Indians fought heroically against the 
invaders, but their arrows were no match for the arms carried by 
these white "warriors of fire." 

The Spaniards chained a number of natives in gangs, forced 
them to serve as guides through the forest, and made them carry 
their baggage and pound their corn. 

20. De Soto discovers the ** Great River" of the West; his 
death. In the spring (1541) the Spaniards came to the banks of 
the " Great River " of the West. At the point where they first 
saw it, the river "was about half a league broad," of "great 
depth," with "a strong current," "the water was always muddy, 
and timber and trees were continually floating down." Such is 
the first description by Europeans of the Mississippi. 

De Soto and his party crossed this mighty stream probably not 
far below the present city of Memphis, and pushed on to the 
vicinity of the Hot Springs of Arkansas. In the spring, utterly 
discouraged, they set out to reach the Gulf of Mexico. They got 
as far as the point where the Red River unites with the Mississippi. 
There ( 1542) De Soto died, and was secretly buried at midnight in 
the turbid waters of the " Great River " which he had discovered 
(see map on page 16). His followers built boats, and dropping 
down the stream succeeded at length in reaching Mexico. 

21. The seven wonderful cities ; Coronado's expedition ; Onate's 
expedition. But the effect of Cabeza de Vaca's reports did not 



i6 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1539-1540 



end with De Soto's disastrous expedition. Some Indians had told 
the Spaniards in Mexico that there were seven wonderful cities 
full of gold, silver, and precious stones about forty days' journey 
northward in a region called Cibola. Cabeza, then in Mexico, said 
that he too had heard of these remarkable cities. The cupidity 
of the Spaniards was excited to fever point. A negro who had 
been one of Cabeza's former companions was sent out as guide 
to a monk who was directed to bring back an account of Cibola. 
They penetrated Arizona and New Mexico, and came in sight 
of one of the marvelous cities. The next year (1540) Coronado, 




Exploring Expeditions of De Soto and Coronado 



the Spanish governor of a Mexican province, set out with an army 
to conquer Cibola. After a terrible march over mountains of 
rock and through suffocating deserts, Coronado reached one of 
the cities — the pueblo of Zuni, it is supposed — and took it by 
assault, but found no gold or precious stones. 

From this point he sent out an exploring party in search of a 
strange river. They discovered the Canon of the Colorado — 
the deepest gorge known to exist in the earth's crust. Led on 



1541-1605] EXPLORING AND COLONIZING AMERICA 17 

by stories of gold to be found farther north, Coronado pushed 
forward until, according to his own computation, he reached 
the fortieth parallel of latitude. Here, first of white men, he 
hunted buffalo — perhaps on the plains of Kansas. The next 
year (1541) he reached the banks of a branch of the Mississippi 
and set up a cross bearing the inscription : " Thus far came the 
general Francisco Vasquez de Coronado." Had the bold explorer 
kept on eastward from New Mexico he might have met his 
countryman De Soto, who had crossed the Mississippi and was 
moving westward. 

More than half a century later Onate, a Spanish military leader, 
founded Santa Fe (1605), the second oldest town in the United 
States ; his name, cut on the smooth white sandstone of <' Inscrip- 
tion Rock," between Santa Fe and Zuni, is still distinctly legible. 

These men cared nothing for America itself, but only for what 
they could get out of it. Cortez summed up their motives in a 
single sentence when he told the Mexicans : "We Spaniards are 
troubled with a disease of the heart for which we find gold, and 
gold only, a specific remedy." 

22. French explorations ; Huguenot colonies planted at the South. 
But a party of Frenchmen dared to dispute the claims of Spain 
to the exclusive possession of the North American continent. 
Cartier had already discovered and explored the St. Lawrence 
(1535), and had named a lofty hill on an island in that river 
Montreal. Not quite thirty years later (1562) Admiral Coligny, 
the champion of the French Protestants, sent out a number of 
Huguenot emigrants to plant a colony at the South. Their object 
was to build up a Protestant commonwealth at Port Royal, on the 
coast of what is now South CaroHna. The attempt failed. Two 
years later a new Huguenot colony settled near the mouth of the 
St. John's River, Florida, and built Fort Caroline. Here they 
were joined by Jean Ribaut with reenforcements. 

23. Philip II sends Menendez to exterminate the Huguenot^ 
colonists ; St. Augustine ; the massacre ; De Gourgues' revenge. 
Philip n of Spain was startled by hearing of these trespassers on 



1 8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1565-15G7 

his American dominions. French pirates had (1555) burned the 
Spanish settlement of Havana and butchered all of the inhabit- 
ants, Philip was eager for revenge ; he was resolved to show 
no mercy to men who in his eyes were not only intruders, but 
"heretics." Pedro Menendez was sent over with a fleet to deal 
summarily with the Huguenots. " 

Menendez arrived in time to catch sight of Ribaut's vessels, 
but could not overtake them. He then dropped down to a 
point about forty miles south, where he erected a fort (1565), 
and thus laid the foundations of St. Augustine, the oldest city 
built by white men on the North American continent. 

Ribaut, leaving a small garrison to hold Fort Caroline, sailed 
to attack the Spaniards, but his fleet was wrecked on the coast. 
Menendez heard of the disaster, marched rapidly across the 
country, surprised Fort Caroline, and killed most of the French in 
their beds. The women and children were spared. The story 
of this massacre reached France ; it was reported that Menendez 
had hanged a number of the garrison, and had written above 
their swinging corpses : " I do this not as to Frenchmen but 
as to Lutherans." 

On his return from Fort Caroline Menendez fell in with some 
of Ribaut's shipwrecked men. Trusting to the Spaniard's mercy, 
they surrendered ; their hands were tied behind their backs, they 
were marched to St. Augustine, and all, except a few sailors who 
professed to be Catholics, were put to death. A Httle later 
Ribaut himself, with some of his soldiers, was discovered. Part 
of them, including the captain, surrendered. They were told 
that they must die. " We are of the earth," said Ribaut, " and 
to earth we shall return — twenty years more or less matters 
Httle." All were stabbed to the heart. Afterward some of the 
French who had evaded pursuit were captured. Their lives were 
spared, but they were sent to the galleys, a fate more cruel than 
death itself. 

France made no attempt to retaliate, but two years later 
(1567) Captain De Gourgues, said to have been a P^rench 










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MAP SHOWING THE EARLY VOYAGES TO AMERICA 
WITH THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 

The heavy black coast line indicates what parts of 
the two continents were then known. 



157G-1584] EXPLORING AND COLONIZING AMERICA 19 

Catholic, sailed from France and captured the Spanish fort on 
the St. John's. He hanged his prisoners on the same tree which 
it was said Menendez had used for executing his French captives. 
Over their bodies he placed this inscription : ** I do this not as 
to Spaniards, but as to traitors, robbers, and murderers." Not 
daring to attack St. Augustine, De Gourgues returned to France 
leaving Spain supreme in America. 

24. The English search for a northwest passage to India ; 
Drake's voyage ; Gilbert ; Raleigh. But soon a more formidable 
rival than the French appeared on the scene to contest the 
Spanish monopoly of North America. Frobisher, the English 
navigator (157 6- 1578), made great efforts to discover a north- 
western passage to Asia. A little later (1579) Sir Francis 
Drake, in his voyage around the world, landed on the northern 
Pacific coast. He took possession of the country for Queen 
Elizabeth and named it New Albion. The English, however, 
made no attempt to plant a colony on the western coast, but a 
few years afterward (1583) Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed New- 
foundland for the British crown. His intention was to colonize 
the country, but he was lost at sea. 

The year following (1584), Walter Raleigh, a half brother of 
Sir Humphrey, obtained a charter from Elizabeth giving him the 
right to lay claim to any land in the west '' not actually possessed 
by any Christian prince." Raleigh's charter guaranteed to all 
subjects of the queen who should settle under it the same rights 
and privileges which they enjoyed at home. Burke says of 
Raleigh : " He was the first man in England who had a right 
conception of settlements abroad." His object was to found an 
EngHsh colonial empire in America, and to put " a bridle on the 
king of Spain," — England's most formidable enemy. 

25. Raleigh and Virginia; products of Virginia; the lost colony; 
the results. Raleigh sent out an exploring expedition (1584). 
They landed at Roanoke Island and brought back such glowing 
accounts of the "good land" that Elizabeth called it Virginia 
and rewarded Raleigh with knighthood. By 1606 the name 



20 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1585-1587 

Virginia was given to the entire coast from 34° to 45°, — in other 
words, from the mouth of the Cape Fear River to the Bay of 
Fundy. The next year (1585) Raleigh sent out a body of 
colonists, but they soon came back. They had, however, dis- 
covered an Indian herb which the poet Spenser called " divine 
tobacco." They had also found certain round "roots" which 
" being boiled are very good food." 

Sir Walter planted the Indian herb and the round "roots" 
in his garden at Youghal near Cork, Ireland. By his efforts the 
potato, the most valuable vegetable known to man, and tobacco, 
denounced by King James as " the vilest of weeds," were intro- 
duced into use in the British Isles. 

Not disheartened by the failure of his first attempt to establish 
a settlement in Virginia, Sir Walter sent out emigrants (1587) 
to form another. This colony mysteriously disappeared and no 
trace of it was ever found, save the name, Croatoan, which the 
colonists had cut on the bark of a tree when they left their 
settlement never to return. 

Though Sir Walter's enterprise failed, the idea survived, and 
was successfully carried out later by a company of London mer- 
chants. Raleigh believed that he should live to see an " English 
nation " founded in the New World. He was not disappointed. 
His memorial window in the church of St. Margaret near West- 
minster Abbey commemorates the fact that he " laid the corner 
stone of the American Republic." 

26. The American Indians ; ^ their character ; their numbers. 
Before proceeding to the work of Raleigh's successors, let us 
consider the subject of the Indians and their influence on the 
history of our country. 

The Indians that Columbus met in the West Indies were usually 
gentle, timid, and easily enslaved by Europeans. But no colonist 
ever accused the northern Indians of excessive meekness of spirit. 
In bloodthirsty ferocity and bulldog tenacity an Algonquin — 

1 See Winsor's America, I, ch. v; Parkman's Pontiac, I, ch. i; Morgan's League 
of the Iroquois ; Ellis' The Red Man and the White Man ; Thwaites' Colonies, 7-19. 



1492-] EXPLORING AND COLONIZING AMERICA 21 

or, still better, an Iroquois — was a match for the most brutal 
Spaniard that ever set foot on the shores of the New World. 

The entire Indian population east of the Mississippi probably 
fell short of two hundred thousand. The same area to-day 
supports a white population of over fifty millions. 

Like the wild beasts of the forest, the red men possessed the 
country without occupying it. They required vast solitudes in 
which to seek their game. This was the more necessary because 
the dog was their only domestic animal. 

The Indians cultivated some small patches of corn and 
tobacco. But this area of cultivation remained nearly stationary, 
since the size of the cornfield which a squaw could work over 
with her clam-shell hoe could never be very great when measured 
by the vigorous appetites of a healthy Indian family. 

27. Influence of the character of the Indians on the early settlers. 
It was perhaps fortunate for the future of America that the 
Indians of the North rejected civilization. Had they accepted 
it, the whites and Indians might have intermarried to some extent 
as they did in Mexico. That would have given us a population 
made up in a measure of shiftless half-breeds. 

It was fortunate, too, that the Indians whom the English 
colonists encountered were generally warlike. Had they been 
peaceful and submissive, the white settlers would probably have 
reduced them to slavery, — as they did in the West Indies. That 
would have struck a serious blow at the habits of personal industry 
and of self-help acquired by the colonists. 

The fact that the red man was intractable, independent, and 
fond of fighting prevented the great body of settlers from spread- 
ing rapidly over the country. It compelled them to live in a 
tolerably compact line along the coast, made them vigilant, 
exercised them in the art of war, and made union for self-defense 
a necessity. When later the English settlers had to fight the 
Canadian French, this training in arms, forced upon them by 
conflicts with the Indians, came into effective play and had 
decisive results on the future of America. 



22 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1492- 

28. The indebtedness of the colonists to the Indians for food and 
clothing. The relations in which the aborigines stood to the 
colonists as friends or enemies had important economic results. 
The first and greatest need of the colonists was an abundant 
supply of food. The chief American cereal was Indian corn. 
It did not grow in Europe, and no Englishman ever saw a field 
of it before coming to this country. The red men taught 
the Virginia settlers how to raise corn in an uncleared forest 
by simply girdling the trees and so letting in the sunlight. In 
Plymouth the Indians showed the Pilgrims how to make their 
corn grow by putting a fish, as a fertilizer, in every hill. They 
showed them, too, how to make maple sugar, and how to spear 
fish through the ice in winter and pack them in snow till wanted ; 
that was the Indian's "cold storage" system. 

From them the settlers learned to tan deerskins for clothing, 
to make moccasins, snowshoes, and birch-bark canoes, — all 
articles of indispensable use in the American wilderness. 

29. Value of wampum ; Indian labor ; trade with the Indians. 
Next to food and clothing one of the greatest wants felt by the 
colonists was some medium of exchange for carrying on trade 
with the natives. The Indians themselves met this want by their 
wampum or shell money. For many years this currency was 
practically well-nigh the only one in use in certain parts of the 
English settlements. It proved a most important factor in trad- 
ing with the natives. The settlers also used it among themselves. 
They bought merchandise, hired labor, and sometimes paid the 
salaries of their schoolmasters and ministers or their tax bills 
with clam-shell money. 

Again, it was the Indians who first enabled the whites to open 
commerce with the mother country. Fish and furs were always 
in demand in England; the red men were experts in trapping 
beaver, catching codfish, and in whahng ; on this account the 
colonists found it profitable to hire their services. 

On the other hand, the Indians were excellent customers for 
the hoes, knives, hatchets, blankets, muskets, ammunition, and 




23 



24 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1492- 

rum which the colonists offered for sale. With iron hoes the 
natives could raise a much greater quantity of corn, and Governor 
Bradford states that* the Narragansetts offered for sale from five 
hundred to a thousand bushels at a time. 

30. Indian trails and waterways;^ fur-trading posts. When 
the colonists had grown so strong that they had begun to develop 
an inland commerce, the Indian proved helpful in a different 
direction. In the course of centuries of travel the red man's 
feet had worn trails through the forests. The settlers took the 
hint and often laid out their roads on the line of these trails. 
In the state of New York the turnpike, the Erie Canal, and the 
New York Central Railway, running nearly side by side from 
Albany to Buffalo, follow the great Iroquois Trail extending from 
the Hudson to Lake Erie. In America the Indian was the first 
road surveyor (see map facing page 22). 

The waterways and portages or carrying places of the Indians 
were as valuable to the colonists as their trails. By means of 
their light birch canoes the natives could pass from the Great 
Lakes to the Atlantic on the one hand and to the Gulf of Mexico 
on the other. They transported immense quantities of furs from 
the interior to the seacoast for shipment to Europe. Merchan- 
dise and household goods were carried inland in the same way. 
Over this great network of waterways the Indians were our first 
pilots. The fur-trading posts in the West marked the sites of what 
became important settlements. Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, 
St. Louis, and other western cities began in this way. 

31 . The Indians claim the continent ; Indian wars. The red 
men claimed the American continent as their own. They held 
their lands not by private ownership, but by tribal tenure. If 
they disposed of a tract, they seem to have considered in many 
cases that they still retained some kind of interest in it. This 
naturally caused disputes. The English colonists got their lands 
of the Indians by purchase, force, or fraud. Often the settlers 

1 See Semple's American History and its Geographic Conditions, and Hulbert's 
The Red Men's Roads. 



1492-] EXPLORING AND COLONIZING AMERICA 25 

bought the soil at a fair price. In other cases they deliberately 
drove the natives from their homes and hunting grounds, or 
shamefully cheated them out of their possessions by some cun- 
ning trick, such as the "Walking Purchase" swindle in 1737 

(§ 144)- 

The result of unfair treatment was war, and war accompanied 
by all the hideous acts of cruelty in which the Indians took delight. 
But the increase of the white settlers made conflict with the 
Indians well-nigh inevitable. The interests of the two races were 
to a certain extent antagonistic. The w^hite mai^ wanted to clear 
the land, — in fact, had to clear it in order to live ; the Indian 
wanted to retain the primeval wilderness as a game preserve. 
Every tree which the settler's ax felled was a sign to the red 
man that he must sooner or later move farther west or starve. 
Hence it is that, down to a comparatively late period, Indian 
wars occupy a prominent place in our history. 

32. Our alliances with the Indians; the Iroquois, or "Five 
Nations." Our alliances w^ith the Indians were often as important 
as our wars with them. It was largely through the help of the 
Iroquois that the EngHsh prevented the Canadian French from 
getting possession of New York. 

Again, the English, through the Indians of New York, obtained 
*' their first real treaty-hold " on the rich country west of the 
Alleghenies, between the Ohio and the Great Lakes. Those 
Indians claimed that region by reason of their conquests over other 
tribes. By a treaty made at Lancaster, Pennsylvania (1744), the 
Iroquois ceded all their western lands to the king of England. 

When the French claimed that vast and fertile region by right 
of discovery and exploration, England replied, in behalf of her 
American colonies, that the territory was already hers by virtue 
of the Lancaster Indian treaty. Whether the Iroquois cession 
was valid or not, it was believed to be so, and it helped to open 
the way for the future growth of the English colonies in the West. 

33. Summary of our relations with the Indians. We may sum- 
marize our relations with the Indians as economic and political. 



26 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1492- 

Under the first head we find that : ( i ) the Indians taught the 
settlers how to grow corn and thus supply themselves with an 
inexhaustible quantity of food; (2) they helped them to open 
up a highly profitable European trade in furs and fish ; (3) they 
furnished the first currency for obtaining supplies to carry on that 
trade ; (4) the Indian trails and waterways became permanent 
means of communication to the settlers, and the fur- trading 
posts often grew into thriving cities. 

Under the second head we find that: (i) the necessity of 
defense against hostile tribes induced the colonists to keep 
together, and trained them in war ; (2) alliances formed with the 
powerful Iroquois confederacy of New York served as a barrier 
against the designs of the Canadian French, and thus favored the 
unity and continued growth of the English colonies ; (3) through 
a treaty made with the Iroquois at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the 
English obtained a formal title to the lands beyond the Alle- 
ghenies ; thus they secured room for expansion and laid the 
foundation of our hold on the West. 

34. Effects of the discovery of America on Europe, i. The 
success of Columbus gave rise to voyages of exploration and 
opened new fields for commerce. Spain rapidly rose, through the 
supply of precious metals she obtained in Mexico and Peru, to 
be the most powerful nation in Europe. The large amount of 
gold and silver thus brought into circulation in the Old World 
stimulated rival nations to send out expeditions to conquer and 
colonize empires in America. 

In England and on the continent the increase of the pre- 
cious metals frequently enabled the peasantry, who paid a fixed 
money rent, to become owners of the lands they cultivated. 
Many emigrants of the best class who came to this coun- 
try from England sprang from that thrifty and industrious 
peasantry. 

2. The Spaniards who settled the West Indies at first enslaved 
the Indians ; but finding that negroes were far more profitable 
as laborers, they gradually introduced African slavery into those 



1492-] EXPLORING AND COLONIZING AMERICA 2/ 

islands. After the English planted colonies on the mainland, 
much of their commerce was with the West Indies. Interference 
with this trade by the British government was one cause of the 
American Revolution. 

3. North America gave Europe new food products of inesti- 
mable value. Chief among them stand the potato and Indian corn. 
Besides these the cod fisheries of Newfoundland furnished the 
poorer classes with inexhaustible suppHes of that cheap and well- 
known fish. America also in time supplied Europe with such 
luxuries as cocoa and tobacco. Columbus found cotton in the 
West Indies, and carried back with him cloth manufactured from 
it by the natives. Sugar, rice, and cotton had long been produced 
in the East Indies, but their high price in Europe made them 
the luxuries of the rich. Now they were discovered growing wild 
in America. Eventually their cultivation in the southern states 
made them so cheap that they came into general use throughout 
the civilized world. 

4. But the crowning result of the discovery of America was 
that it widened the intellectual horizon more than any event had 
ever done before. Men found that they were living in a grander 
world than they had imagined. New possibiHties, new oppor- 
tunities were opened to them. Hope was awakened, enterprise 
stimulated. " If," says Freeman, the eminent English historian, 
" the New World owes its being to the Old World, the Old owes 
to the New the revival and expansion of its being." 

At best the Old World was limited ; men knew its bounds and 
its resources. There progress was beset with difficulty; but no 
one dared to fix the limits of America or say what marvels it 
contained. Here certainly was room for all, and food for all. 
If in many of its physical aspects — its soil and climate — it was 
Europe repeated, still it was repeated on a colossal scale, with 
vaster forests, wider prairies, loftier mountain ranges, grander 
lakes, and nobler rivers. Unlike Europe, America fronts on two 
oceans ; it naturally commands the trade of Europe and Africa 
on the one side, and of Asia and the Indies on the other. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY 

See, in general, IVinsor's America, IV, pp. i-xxx ; Shaler''s United States; Shaler's 
Our Co7itinent ; Sempie^s A jnerican History and its Geographic Conditions ; Brig/uim''s 
Geographic Influences in American History. 

The physical geography of the United States has had and must continue to have 
a powerful influence, not only on the health and industry, but on the character and 
progress of the American people, 

I. The English colonies were planted on rivers or harbors which invited settle- 
ment and favored their commercial intercourse with the mother-country, with the 
West Indies, and with each other (see §§ 39 et seq., and 173, 177, 17S). 

II. The Appalachian range barred the West against the colonists and confined 
them to a long, narrow strip bordering on the sea. This limitation of soil had im- 
portant effects on the occupations and the exports of the settlers, while it encouraged 
the development of union, poUtical strength, and independence (see §§ 173, 196). 

III. The Canadian French, on the other hand, having control of the St. Lawrence 
and the Great Lakes, soon got temporary possession of the Mississippi Valley. This 
led to a war which ended by giving the West to the English colonists (see § 172). 

IV. The first English-speaking settlements made west of the Alleghenies were 
planted on the Ohio and other streams flowing into the Mississippi,— a river system 
35,000 miles in extent, watering the great central valley of the continent. Later the 
steamboat made that vast region accessible in all directions (see §§ 137, 25 S). 

V. After the colonies secured their independence, the boundaries of the Ameri- 
can RepubUc were fixed by successive treaties. These boundaries were determined, 
to a great extent, by : (i) coastlines; (2) rivers and lakes ; (3) watersheds; (4) moun- 
tain ranges. In 1783 our possessions were Umited by the Atlantic and the Missis- 
sippi; in 1803 they touched the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains ; in 1846 
they reached the Pacific (see Table of Boundaries). 

VI. The most pressing question with every rapidly growing people is that of 
food supply. Some nations of Europe — notably Great Britain — can only feed 
themselves by importing provisions. America is so fortunate in soil, chmate, and 
extent of territory, that the people produce not only all the breadstuffs and meats 
they require, but they have an immense surplus for exportation (see §§ 421, 564). 

VII. Next in importance to grain and meats are cotton, wool, timber, coal, petro- 
leum, iron, copper, and the precious metals. These products are powerful factors in 
the development of modern civilization, and it is believed that no continent is richer 
in them than our own (see §§ 143, 406, 437, 564). 

VIII. While cotton fastened slavery on the South, the abundant water power of 
New England gave the first impulse to American cotton manufacturing. On the 
other hand, the western prairies stimulated agriculture and immigration, and encour- 
aged the building of railroads, which in twenty years did more to open up the coun- 
try than two centuries had done before. Again, physical geography has influenced 
legislation respecting labor, the tariff, trade, currency, and the building of roads, rail- 
ways, and canals; furthermore, it determined decisive military movements in the 
Revolution (see Washington's retreat across the Delaware, § 212, and Greene's 
retreat, § 230) and in the Civil War (see §§ 467, 468, 485-487). 

IX. Experience proves that the physical conditions of the United States favor 
health, vigor, and longevity. Statistics show that in size and weight the American 
people are fully equal, if not, indeed, superior, to Europeans, while their average 
length of Ufe appears to be somewhat greater (see Rhodes' United States, III, jt,, 74). 

X. The conclusion of eminent scientists is that no part of the globe is better 
suited to the requirements of one of the master races of the world than the United 
States, and such statesmen as Lincoln and Gladstone have declared their belief that 
this country has a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever established 
by man (see § 34). 

28 




29 



30 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1492-I6O0 

Such marked geographical features necessarily made themselves 
felt in the future economical and pohtical history of the country. 
These influences are considered on pages 28-29 (see map with 
text). 

Possessed of these physical advantages, America seemed to invite 
all classes of men to her hospitable shores. She seemed to say : 
Come here and be free, for here is a virgin field in which to try 
not only all experiments in the development of material resources, 
but in government and in the organization of society; here, in 
short, is a New World ; you shall make of it what you will. 

35. Summary, i. In 1492 Columbus, while seeking a direct, 
all-water route to the Indies, discovered the West India Islands 
and opened them to Spanish occupation. The voyages of 
Americus Vespucius suggested the name America for the New 
World. By the beginning of the seventeenth century the Spaniards 
had discovered Florida, the Mississippi, and the Pacific, explored 
parts of the South and West, made a settlement at St. Augustine, 
Florida, and taken possession of Mexico and New Mexico. 

2. Meanwhile the French had explored the St. Lawrence and 
made an attempt to get a foothold in the South, but had been 
driven out by the Spaniards. 

3. In 1497 John Cabot first discovered the continetit of North 
America and claimed possession of it for England. In the next 
century Sir Walter Raleigh planted English settlements in Vir- 
ginia, but they were soon abandoned. 

4. The close of the sixteenth century left the Spaniards the 
sole possessors of North America. So far as could then be seen, 
Spain, and Spain alone, was destined to control the future of the 
territory which is now the United States. 



Ill 

PERMANENT ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 

( 1 600-1 763) 

For authorities /or this chapter, see footnotes and the classified 
list of books in the Appendix, pagexxiv 

THE THIRTEEN COLONIES 1 — FRENCH EXPLORATION OF THE WEST — 
WARS WITH THE INDIANS AND WITH THE FRENCH — GENERAL 
VIEW OF THE COLONIES 

36. English trading expeditions ; the fisheries ; Virginia colonies 
planned. Although Raleigh's attempt to plant a colony in Virginia 
failed (§ 25), yet the EngHsh continued to send out occasional fish- 
ing and fur- trading expeditions to America. By 1600 the British 
Newfoundland fisheries employed not less than ten thousand men 
and boys. 

Gosnold (1602) and Weymouth (1605) made voyages to that 
part of northern Virginia which was later named New England, 
and carried back favorable accounts. Two commercial com- 
panies, known as the London and the Plymouth Companies, were 
formed in England to plant permanent colonies in Virginia, — a 
territory then extending from Cape Fear to Halifax. 

Several reasons prompted this undertaking : i . The Companies 
hoped to discover mines of precious metals in Virginia or to find 
a passage to the Pacific and the Indies. 

2. It was beUeved that if colonies were planted in Virginia they 
would draw off a restless class of disbanded soldiers and of young 

1 On the thirteen colonies, in general, see Winsor's America, III-V ; Hildreth's 
United States, I-II ; Thwaites' Colonies; Doyle's English in America, 3 vols,; 
Lodge's Colonies ; Eggleston's Beginners of a Nation ; Macdonald's Select Charters. 

31 



32 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I6O6 

men out of work, — then numerous in England ; that they would 
employ many idle vessels in carrying out emigrants and freight; 
that they would open new markets for English goods ; and, finally, 
that England would be able to get a cheap and abundant supply 
of ship-timber, tar, and rosin from her American colonies. 

3. Some of the promoters of the enterprise had broader views; 
they looked beyond material gains, and resolved to plant great 
and growing colonies in Virginia which should secure to England 
a- mighty empire in America. 

But the plans of the Companies had opponents. Hume says 
that even in 1606 there were Englishmen who thought it bad 
policy to plant colonies in Virginia, because such settlements 
*' after draining the mother-country of inhabitants would soon 
shake off her yoke and erect an ifidependent government T 



I. Virginia (1607)^ 

37. The Virginia Charter (1606); appeal to that charter. The 

charter^ empowered the London Company to estabhsh settle- 
ments in southern Virginia anywhere between the 34th and 38th 
degrees of north latitude (that is, between Cape Fear and the 
Potomac). To the Plymouth Company the king by the same 
charter granted the territory in northern Virginia between the 
41st and 45th degrees of north latitude (that is, between the 
eastern end of Long Island and the northern limit of Nova 
Scotia). The intervening country (38th to 41st degrees), em- 
bracing w^hat is now Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and a small 
corner of New York, was open to colonization by either company, 
but neither was to make a settlement within one hundred miles 
of the other. 

1 See Winsor's America, III, ch. v, and V, ch. iv ; Thwaites' Colonies, ch. iv ; 
Brown's Genesis of the United States; and the First Republic in America; Eggle- 
ston's Beginners of a Nation; Bruce's Economic History of Virginia; Fiske's Old 
Virginia; Cooke's Virginia. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. i. 



1606] 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 



\ 



33 



The charter provided : (i) that each grant should extend one 
hundred miles inland; (2) that the territory should be held on 
the most favorable terms. It was to be free of all miHtary service, 
and of all taxation by the king, save a certain reservation (from 
a fifth to a fifteenth) of any valuable metals which might be 
found ; (3) the king guaranteed to the colonists and their descend- 
ants the same 
rights and privi- 
leges "as if they 
had been abiding 
and born within 
this our realm of 

This last im- 
portant conces- 
sion did not go 
into effect until 
the establish- 
ment of the Vir- 
ginia Assembly 
(1619) ; later it 
had an unfore- 
seen result. 
On the eve of 
the Revolution 
(1765), the 

Virginians, in justifying their resistance to the Stamp Act, appealed 
to this clause of the original charter. They declared that the 
first settlers " brought with them, and transmitted to their pos- 
terity, all the privileges . . . that have at any time been held . . . 
by the people of Great Britain." 

38. Government of the colony ; trial by jury ; religious worship ; 
community of goods. The colony was to be governed by a resi- 
dent council, under the direction of a higher council in England, 
controlled by the king. 




34 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I607 

Royal instructions/ following the charter, granted trial by jury 
in capital cases, and established religious worship according to the 
usage of the Church of England. For the first five years the col- 
onists were to deposit '* all the fruits of their labor " in the Com- 
pany's storehouse; but the Company was to supply the settlers 
with food, clothing, and other necessaries. 

39. Settlement of Jamestown (1607) ; Captain John Smith. 
In 1607 the London Company sent out one hundred and five 
emigrants to Virginia. No women or children went. Like the 
California pioneers of '49, their object was to find fortunes in the 
soil of the New World. They took out pickaxes to dig for gold. 
The emigrants had particular orders to search for mines of precious 
metals, and to seek for a passage to the Pacific. 

The colonists landed on the banks of a river which they named 
the James in honor of the king. For a Hke reason they named 
their settlement Jamestown (1607). Perhaps the ablest man in 
the party was Captain John Smith. He became one of the gov- 
ernors of the colony and wrote its history. 

Most of the settlers belonged to a class in England who were 
unused to manual labor, and hence wholly unfit to struggle with 
the hardships of an American wilderness. Sickness carried off 
many, and at one time they came so near starving that it was 
with the -greatest difficulty that the breath of life was kept in the 
colony. A shipload of glittering earth which they sent back to 
London, and which turned out to be not gold but simply yellow 
dirt, completed the disgust of the settlers. 

When Smith became governor, he laid down the scriptural rule 
that those who would not work should not eat. He explored and 
mapped the country bordering on Chesapeake Bay, urged the 
cultivation of corn, and endeavored by every possible means to 
put the settlement on a self-supporting and paying basis. Whether 
Pocahontas saved Captain Smith's life or not, he certainly seems 
to have saved Virginia. 

1 See Brown's Genesis of the United States, I, 67, 69; Hildreth's United States, 
I, 96. 



1G09] 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 



35 



40. Provisions of the new charter (1609). Two years after the 
settlement of Jamestown the king granted the London Company 
(1609) a new charter.-^ It provided : 

1. That the government of the colony should be placed 
entirely in the hands of the council in England, who were to send 
out a governor having almost absolute power. 

2. Virginia was now made to extend two hundred miles north 
and the same distance south of Point Comfort; " west and north- 
west " it ran " from sea to sea," that is, to the Pacific.- Eventually 




Virginia made the "sea-to-sea" clause the basis for her claim to 
the greater part of that vast region which, after the Revolution, 
came to be called the "Northwest Territory" (§ 237). 

3. The new charter forbade any emigrant's settling in Vir- 
ginia unless he took the Oath of Supremacy by which he denied 
the supreme authority of the pope. This, of course, shut out 
CathoHcs. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 2. 2 Virginia claimed the oblique 
line, shown on the map, as her northwest boundary. In 1763 England, by the Treaty 
of Paris, gave up her claim to territory west of the Mississippi (§ 172) ; this restricted 
the western land claims of colonies to the country east of that river (§ 236). 



36 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [16O9-I612 

At that time each of the leading nations of Europe maintained 
its own form of religion. In southern Europe the established 
church was Catholic, in northern Europe it was Protestant. When 
Spain planted her colonies in America she naturally excluded Prot- 
estants ; when England planted hers, she just as naturally excluded 
Catholics (§23). 

41. The colonists abandon Jamestown; Lord Delaware; Sir 
Thomas Dale; the third charter (1612). After Smith's return to 
England (1609) the colonists became so disheartened that they 
abandoned Jamestown and set out for their native land. At that 
moment, Lord Delaware, the newly appointed governor, arrived 
and compelled the settlers to remain. 

Lord Delaware w^as succeeded (161 1) by Sir Thomas Dale, a 
stern disciplinarian, but a man of sound sense. He allotted three 
acres of land to each colonist, on condition that he should deliver 
a certain quantity of corn annually to the keeper of the common 
storehouse. This arrangement had a most happy effect : it secured 
to each man a httle estate of his own, stimulated industry, and 
provided a reserve supply of food for the colony. 

A year later ( 1 6 1 2 ) the king granted to the Company a third 
and final charter.^ It differed from the preceding ones in putting 
the management of the colony into the hands not of a council, 
but of the body of stockholders in England. 

42. John Rolfe begins the cultivation of tobacco ; results. Not 
long after Governor Dale's administration began, John Rolfe, 
who married Pocahontas, planted a field with tobacco (16 12), 
which he sold at a handsome profit in England. That ex- 
periment decided the industrial and commercial success of the 
colony. Henceforth every man that could turn planter did so, 
and began raising tobacco for the English market. The soil 
and climate of Virginia favored the new culture, and the nav- 
igable streams emptying into Chesapeake Bay made it easy for 
the planters to ship their crop almost from their own doors direct 
to London. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 3. 



1619] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 37 

Notwithstanding a heavy tax imposed on this product by the 
king, the demand for it constantly increased. In 1619 the 
Virginians exported 20,000 pounds of tobacco, and eight years 
later 500,000. Long before the close of the century the quan- 
tity sent abroad had risen (1670) to nearly 12,000,000 pounds 
(§ 48). Charles II thought that the use of the weed would be 
of short duration, and declared that the prosperity of Virginia was 
"wholly built upon smoke"; but from that *' smoke " England 
derived, and still derives, a goodly part of her revenue. 

In Virginia tobacco became (1620) the legal currency, and 
planters paid their tavern bills and their taxes in rolls or hogs- 
heads of it. Later the Legislature enacted laws stinting the 
quantity of the plant which a farmer might raise, and compelling 
him to devote a certain number of acres to corn. These laws 
were necessary to prevent over-production in the one case, and 
to provide food in the other. 

Economically, politically, and socially the cultivation of tobacco 
had results of the highest importance. 

1. It encouraged the immigration of a class of thrifty and 
industrious colonists who saw in Virginia a gold mine which they 
could work with a hoe. 

2. It induced the exportation from England of thousands of 
" indented apprentices," who were bound to the planters for a 
number of years. Part of them came voluntarily; part were 
kidnapped in English ports and shipped to Virginia against their 
will. In some instances, convicts known as " jail birds " were 
sent over by order of the king. By a later act of Parliament 
convicts might be sent to any of the American colonies, though 
the greater part seem to have been transported to the West Indies. 
Most of these apprentices and their descendants became what were 
known as '' poor whites," or ** scrubs." Occasionally a remarkable 
man sprang from these people. In modern times "Stonewall" 
Jackson was one, and Abraham Lincoln says that he was another. 

3. The demand for cheap and permanent laborers for raising 
tobacco led directly to the introduction (16 19) of negro slavery. 



38 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1619- 

4. The plantations, by scattering the population over large 
areas, checked the growth of towns and of pubHc schools; but 
they were highly favorable to the creation of a well-to-do and 
high-spirited rural aristocracy, who hved on their estates much 
after the fashion of the county aristocracy of England. 

5. Finally, although tobacco exhausted the soil, and in time 
compelled the planters to abandon their old farms and take new 
ones, yet this staple first placed Virginia on a solid financial basis, 
and ensured the success of the colony. 

43. Establishment of the Virginia Assembly; Virginia loses 
her charter; suffrage; power of the Assembly (1619); local 
government. A majority of the Virginia Company in England 
were members of the Liberal party of that day. In their sym- 
pathy for popular hberty they resolved to give the colonists the 
power to enact laws so "that they might have a hand in governing 
themselves." 

Acting under orders from the Company, Governor Yeardley 
called on the inhabitants of the eleven boroughs or towns of 
Virginia to elect two representatives from each borough to meet 
with him and his council. In accordance with that summons the 
first American Legislature assembled in the church at Jamestown 
in the summer of 16 19. That body had full power to make all 
needful "general laws," but no law was to be in force unless 
approved by the governor and "solemnly ratified" by the Vir- 
ginia Company in England. The meeting of that House of 
Burgesses, or Assembly, marks the beginning of local self-govern- 
ment on the American continent. 

At first all free men had the right to vote for members of the 
Assembly, but later (1670) it was enacted that in accordance 
with Enghsh law and custom none but householders and owners 
of real estate should have "a voice in the election of any burgesses 
in this country." 

In 1 6 2 1 the Company gave the colonists an ordinance and con- 
stitution,^ confirming their right to a legislative assembly. A 
1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 6. 



1619] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 39 

little later the burgesses enacted (1623) that the governor should 
not *' lay any taxes . . . upon the colony . . . other than by the 
authority of the General Assembly." This enactment had the 
effect of making the Assembly the real ruhng power. 

The stockholders of the Virginia Company fell into disputes, and 
the king took advantage of the fact to annul the charter (1624) and 
make the colony a royal province ; but this change did not affect the 
Assembly. The local government of the province was carried on by 
parish committees, who taxed the people for the support of the 
Episcopal Church and for the poor. The counties were governed 
by officers appointed by the royal governor. These officers levied 
taxes to build highways andToF other purposes. The general ex- 
penses of the province were met by taxes levied by the Assembly. 

In time local government throughout the South came to resem- 
ble that of Virginia, — especially in the county system. 

44. The beginning of African slavery in Virginia (1619); in- 
dented servants. Not long after the meeting of the first Ameri- 
can legislature an event occurred which John Rolfe, the tobacco 
planter, thus records : "About the last of August (1619) came in 
a Dutch man-of-war that sold us twenty Negars." The purchase 
of that score of kidnapped Africans fastened slavery on Virginia 
and on the United States. 

No one then thought it any more harm to buy a negro than to 
buy a horse. The laws of Moses were believed to sanction traffic 
in human beings, and the attorney-general of England declared 
that '' negroes being pagans might justly be bought and sold." 
The English sovereigns shared in the profits of the trade and en- 
couraged the Virginians to buy as many black men as they could 
pay for. Before the American Revolution every one of the thirteen 
colonies held more or less slaves. 

But the increase of negroes in Virginia was very slow, since 
planters of small means found it far cheaper to employ the labor 
of indented white servants or of convicts ; for both classes came 
over from England in large numbers. Later a statute (1662) 
made slavery hereditary, not only for negroes, but for mulattoes, 



40 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1621 

by providing that all children born in this country should be held 
bond or free, " according to the condition of the mother." ^ 

45. Attempts to check the importation of slaves ; growth of 
slavery. Eventually the Virginians became alarmed at the rapid 
increase of slaves and endeavored to check their importation, but 
the English Parliament refused to allow any restriction on so 
lucrative a trade. George Mason of Virginia declared in the 
Federal Congress that " this infernal traffic originated in the 
avarice of British merchants," and Jefferson, in his first draft of 
the Declaration of Independence, made the king's encourage- 
ment of the slave trade one of the reasons which justified the 
colonies in separating from the mother-country. 

But although Jefferson, Washington, and other leading Vir- 
ginians (who were themselves slaveholders) advocated gradual 
emancipation, yet the majority of the planters opposed it. The 
Federal Constitution expressly protected property in slaves (see 
Appendix, pages x (§ 9), xiv (§ 2)), and the invention of the 
cotton gin made the cultivation of cotton enormously -profitable 
(§ 259). Slavery thereby gained a commercial and political 
importance which made it for more than two generations the 
"central problem of American history." 

46. Importation of women ; results ; Plymouth Colony ; the 
situation. But though Virginia was becoming prosperous, the 
colony still lacked one element without which no colony could 
hope to thrive. Very few women had emigrated to Jamestown. 
The Virginia Company resolved to remedy the deficiency and sent 
(1621) sixty "young, handsome, and honestly educated maids 
... to be disposed in marriage to the most honest and indus- 
trious planters who are to defray . . . the charges of their pas- 
sages." ^ The charge was from 120 to 150 pounds of the best 
leaf tobacco. Never was that plant put to better use. 

When the women came, homes began in this part of the New 
World. Husband, wife, children, — these threefold bonds made 
the little Virginian commonwealth sure of its future. 

1 See Hildreth's United States, I, 518. 2 See Neill's Virginia Company, 262. 



1632-] -• ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 41 

Five hundred miles to the northeast a band of Pilgrims had 
recently (1620) planted a second English colony. They brought 
their famiUes with them, — they too had homes. The children 
born in these two settlements, at Plymouth Rock and on the 
James River, would call this country, and not England, their 
native land; in that way America would come to be a sacred 
name, and mean what it had never meant before. 

Here then was the situation in 162 1 : in Florida a few 
hundred Spaniards held a fort (St. Augustine) on the coast; at 
Quebec a small number of French Cathohcs, who had gone 
there in 1608, held another fort; on the Hudson River a thrifty 
colony of Dutch traders had established themselves since 16 14. 

In New England and Virginia there were two little settlements 
of Enghsh people. Of these four rival colonies the English homes 
alone were the abodes of men who made their own local laws and 
levied their own internal taxes (§§ 43, 82). In that fact may be 
seen the germ of American independence. 

47. Virginia loses part of her territory; civil war in England ; 
Cavaliers ; loyalty of Virginia. After Virginia lost her charter 
(§43) she also lost part of her territory through the king's grant 
(1632) of Maryland on the north and (1663) of the Carolinas 
on the south. 

Shortly after Charles I appointed Sir William Berkeley governor 
of Virginia (1642) civil war broke out in England; the Puritan 
party suppressed the established Church of England for a time 
and set up a short-lived republic. 

Though the people of Virginia were divided in their political 
and religious opinions, yet the ruling element stanchly upheld 
the church and the crown. The Assembly enacted (1643) that 
" all non-conformists (that is, persons who would not attend the 
service of the Episcopal Church) should, when notified, be com- 
pelled to depart out of the colony." Again, when Charles I was 
beheaded (1649), the Assembly declared his executioners traitors 
and threatened death to those who should defend them.^ 

1 See Cooke's Virginia, 193. 



42 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [16G0-1G72 

But in the end Virginia found it policy to submit to the 
authority of the EngHsh republic. Governor Berkeley retired 
from office, but gave princely receptions to the Cavaliers or 
" king's men " who had fought for Charles I and who now fled 
to Virginia. Among those who came were the ancestors of the 
illustrious famihes of the Washingtons and the Lees. 

Great was the rejoicing in the "Old Dominion" when (1660) 
monarchy was restored in England, and *' the king came back to 
his own again." Governor Berkeley again put on his silk robe of 
office, and the Assembly begged the pardon of Charles II for 
having yielded for a time to the "execrable power that so bloodily 
massacred the late King Charles the First of blessed and glorious 
memory." 

48. The Navigation Acts versus privileges granted to the col- 
onists. Under Cromwell the EngHsh Parliament enacted a Navi- 
gation Act which forbade the importation into England of any 
products or goods not brought in British or colonial vessels. 
The object of this law was to strike a blow at the Dutch, who had 
the control of the carrying trade of the world, and to secure a 
large part of the commerce to EngHsh shipowners. Charles II 
(1660) signed a biU which made the Navigation Acts^ far more 
stringent. In their revised form they forbade the Virginians 
exporting certain " enumerated articles," of which tobacco was 
the most important,^ to any country except Great Britain or her 
dependencies. A few years later (1663) a new statute prohib- 
ited the colonists from loading vessels with any European com- 
modity or manufactured goods except those which came from 
Great Britain and were imported in " English-built shipping." 
Finally, to prevent illicit trade in tobacco, this restrictive legisla- 
tion reached its cHmax in the enactment of a third law (1672) 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., Nos. 22, 23, 25, 28, 34, 43; or Hart's 
American History Leaflets, No. ig; Winsor's America, VI, 6-10; Thwaites' Colonies, 
104-106. 

2 The "enumerated articles" were sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo, ginger, fustic, 
or other dyewoods grown or produced in any of the English colonies. Macdonald's 
Select Charters, etc., No. 114. 



1672-1760] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 43 

which prohibited the colonies from exporting any of the " enu- 
merated articles " to each other unless they paid duties on such 
exports. 

These laws were chiefly intended to protect the interests of the 
mother-country. They made it possible to a considerable degree 
for English merchants to fix the price at which the Virginia and 
other colonial planters must sell their produce, and secondly to 
determine the price which the colonists must pay for whatever 
they imported. 

On the other hand, Parliament granted the colonists certain 
very important privileges : (i) it gave them the absolute mo- 
nopoly of the English tobacco market; (2) it gave them a 
drawback on duties on goods imported from Europe by way 
of England. This often made such goods actually cheaper in 
America than in England; (3) it permitted the colonists to 
export all nonenumerated articles such as grain, salted provi- 
sions, rum, furs, and rice, in all of which products there was 
a large and lucrative trade ; (4) it encouraged the exportation 
to England of tar, pitch, turpentine, and ship-timber by the pay- 
ment of liberal bounties.^ Finally, the Navigation Acts were 
never enforced to any great extent until after the accession of 
George III in 1760, and the Virginians found means to smuggle 
their tobacco over to Holland in Dutch vessels (§62) and to 
smuggle back goods in return.^ 

49. Charles II grants Virginia- to two of his favorites. We have 
seen (§ 47) that the English sovereigns had carved huge slices 
out of Virginia, both on the north and the south. The people 
were dismayed at the loss, but congratulated themselves that the 
king had not taken all, when by a sudden act (1673) Charles did 
take all. That monarch had two rapacious favorites, the Earl 
of Arlington and Lord Culpepper; both wished to fill their 
pockets at the expense of the New World. Charles took pity on 

1 See Lecky's History of England, III, 326-328. 

2 Lecky's History of England, HI, 328, 329, 335 ; or Lecky's American Revolution, 
edited by Professor Woodburn, 



44 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1675 

them and granted them " that entire tract of land and water com- 
monly called Virginia" to have and to hold for thirty-one years. 
He empowered these two noblemen to collect all land rents and 
receive all revenues ; and though they could not actually dis- 
possess any settler who held his estate by a clear title, they could 
compel him to prove his title. These powers made Arlington and 
Culpepper the owners and masters, for the time, of the whole 
territory of Virginia. 

50. The ''Perpetual Legislature"; the parish committees; 
taxes ; war with the Indians. To add to the miseries of the 
colonists, no general election had been held since Governor 
Berkeley's restoration to office — a period of thirteen years. 
Such a state of things virtually deprived the colonists of represen- 
tation in the Assembly. Furthermore, the vestries or church 
committees, which had the control of the affairs of each parish, 
had gradually become self-elective bodies or close corporations. 
This change deprived the majority of the parishioners of any 
voice in the management of local interests. Meanwhile the 
" Perpetual Legislature," as it might well be named, demanded 
heavy taxes to keep up the forts, and called on the planters for 
large levies of tobacco in order to raise a fund to buy out the 
claims of Arlington and Culpepper. 

Just at this critical period (1675) the Indians on the frontier 
rose against the settlers. King Philip's War was raging in Massa- 
chusetts, and the planters had good reason to fear that the hid- 
eous atrocities committed by the savages in New England would 
soon be repeated in Virginia. Governor Berkeley took no decided 
measures to protect the colonists, and it was whispered that the 
profits he derived from trade with the Indians made him unwilling 
to act. 

51. Bacon and the Indians; the "Bacon Rebellion." At this 
juncture Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy young planter, and a member 
of the governor's council, asked for a commission to raise volun- 
teers to defend the colony. The governor refused his request. 
Bacon, whose plantation had been attacked by the Indians, raised 



1676-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 45 

a body of men on his own responsibility and marched against the 
savages. Berkeley denounced him as a traitor. The settlers in 
the lower counties sympathized with the young planter's energetic 
action. They rose in arms and compelled the election (1676) 
of a new Assembly, — the first that had been chosen for sixteen 
years. Bacon was chosen as a member. This Assembly broke 
up the close parish committees (§ 50), regranted to the freemen 
of each parish the right to manage its affairs, and repealed the 
law (§ 43) which Umited the right of suffrage to freeholders and 
householders. 

Governor Berkeley, yielding to the pressure brought by the 
people, not only pardoned Bacon, but promised him a commis- 
sion to raise volunteers. The governor did not keep his word, and 
Bacon, suspecting treachery, secretly left Jamestown and soon 
afterAvard reappeared at the head of five hundred men. Berkeley 
then gave him the commission he demanded, but shortly after 
proclaimed him a rebel. This brought on civil war. James- 
town was besieged, the governor fled, and the town was burned 
to the ground. A crumbling heap of ruins shows where the first 
permanent English colony in America built its first settlement; 
the capital of Virginia was removed (1690) to Williamsburg. 

The leader of the rebellion suddenly died, the movement 
collapsed, and the reforms with it. The " Bacon Laws," includ- 
ing freedom of suffrage, were repealed, and soon everything was 
back in the old ruts. Berkeley showed so little mercy in deahng 
with the Bacon party that even Charles II said in disgust : 
"That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country 
than I did (in England) for the murder of my father." 

But Bacon's movement of reform perished only in appearance. 
From Berkeley's time onward we mark a rising spirit of resist- 
ance to arbitrary rule. When Governor Spotswood (17 10-1722) 
insisted on setthng clergymen for life over the parishes, the 
people refused to settle a minister for more than a year. They 
claimed that since they were taxed to pay for preaching they 
had the right to choose the preacher. In the end the people 



46 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1752-1775 

gained the day, and the lordly Spotswood retired discomfited 
from the field. 

Governor Dinwiddie (1752-1^58) found the people just as 
stubborn on another point. He asked for contributions to fight 
the French and Indians on the western frontier, but the Assembly 
refused to vote them unless he would give up the exaction of 
illegal land fees. Worn out with the long contest, the governor 
wrote to a friend that the Virginians were " too much in a repub- 
lican way of thinking." Naturally the aristocratic planters of the 
"Old Dominion" stood squarely by church and king, but none 
the less they were fully resolved to contest to the death any 
serious infringement of their rights. Edmund Burke beheved 
that the ownership of slaves made the Virginians " proud and 
jealous of their liberty." In his famous speech on " Concilia- 
tion " (1775) he said: "In such a people the haughtiness of 
domination combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and 
renders it invincible." 

52. The spirit of independence in Virginia; the warrior 
preacher ; the Continental Congress. But this spirit of freedom 
was not confined in any way to one class or section of Virginia. 
Late in the colonial period an industrious and thrifty population 
of Germans, Swedes, and Scotch-Irish — or emigrants of Scottish 
origin who came from the north of Ireland — settled in the beau- 
tiful Shenandoah Valley. They were a God-fearing and liberty- 
loving people, too poor to own slaves, and so earning their daily 
bread by the sweat of their brows. From them sprang a class 
of men who made their influence felt in the Revolution and in 
the Civil War. 

The Reverend John Muhlenberg, a clergyman of that section, 
voiced the feehngs of the hardy patriots of the stirring days of 
1775. At the close of a fervent discourse he said: "Brethren, 
there is a time for all things — a time to preach and a time 
to pray ; but there is also a time to fight, and that time has 
now come ! " Then throwing off his gown, he stood before his 
congregation a girded warrior, and coming down from the pulpit 



177(1] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 47 

commanded the drummers at the church door to beat for recruits.^ 
Nearly three hundred of the congregation entered the ranks. It 
was the spirit of the " Bacon Rebellion " revived and intensified. 
This time it was not to be quelled. 

The next year — just a hundred years to a day from the time 
the Bacon Assembly had met at Jamestown — another assembly, 
the Continental Congress, met at Philadelphia. On motion by 
a delegate from Virginia they voted the adoption of the Declara- 
tion of Independence which Jefferson wrote and which Washington 
drew his sword to defend. 

53. Summary. Jamestown, Virginia (1607), was the first perma- 
nent English settlement made in the New World. There (16 19), 
the first American Legislature was convened ; the same year 
saw the introduction of negro slaves. Tobacco was the great 
staple which built up the commerce of the colony, though that 
commerce was hampered (1660) by the English navigation laws. 
Virginia was strongly Royalist, but it was also determined to resist 
oppression. There was a period of bad government, and Bacon 
(1676) began a movement of reform which was temporarily suc- 
cessful. Later (1775), the spirit of independence made the " Old 
Dominion " a leading colony in the Revolution. 



I II. New Netherland or New York (1614)^ 

54. New Netherland or New York (1614); Henry Hudson's 
search for a passage to the Indies ; the '♦ River of the Mountains." 
In 1609 the Dutch East India Company — England's great com- 
mercial rival — sent out Captain Henry Hudson to discover a 
passage through America to the Indies. While examining the 
coast he entered that noble stream originally called the " River 

1 Bishop Meade's Old Churches of Virginia, II, 314. 

2 See Winsor's America, IV, ch, viii ; III, ch. x ; V, ch. iii ; Thwaites' Colonies, 
ch. ix; Brodhead's New York (1609-1691) ; Fiske's Dutch and Quaker Colonies; 
Roberts' New York; Lamb's City of New York; Wilson's Memorial History of 
the City of New York. 



48 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1614-1621 

of the Mountains," but which to-day bears the name of its English 
explorer.-^ Sailing up the river, Hudson passed the Highlands 
and the Catskills, and reached the point where Albany now stands. 
Shallow water forced him to turn back. He was delighted with 
the country. "It is as beautiful a land," said he, "as the foot 
of man ever trod upon." After a short stay he returned to 
Europe. 

55. The Dutch build fur-trading stations (1614) on the Hudson 
River. The Dutch at once (16 10) sent out an expedition to open 
fur traffic with the Indians. Soon afterward (16 14) they built a 
few log cabins on the southern portion of Manhattan Island, and 
erected Fort Nassau just below the present site of Albany. 

Fort Nassau was practically at the head of ship navigation on 
the Hudson. It also stood at the eastern terminus of the great 
central Indian trail running to Lake Erie (§ 30). Such a station was 
admirably located for carrying on the fur trade with the Iroquois. 
On the other hand, the post on Manhattan Island would control 
the entrance to the river and thus give the Dutch a monopoly 
of one of the most important waterways on the eastern coast of 
America. 

56. A trading company formed ; colonization ; purchase of Man- 
hattan Island (1626). In the autumn of the same year (16 14) the 
Dutch Republic of the United Netherlands granted a charter to 
a commercial corporation giving it the exclusive right to trade 
with the country called New Netherland. The territory nomi- 
nally embraced not only the valley of the Hudson but the entire 
region between Virginia and Canada as far east as Cape Cod. 
Practically, however. New Netherland was confined to a narrow 
strip between the source of the Hudson and Delaware Bay. 

The object of the Company was not to plant colonies but to 
engage in traffic with the natives. But some years later (162 1), 
a new corporation, the Dutch West India Company, obtained a 

1 In 1524 Verrazano may have entered what is now the harbor of New York, but 
there seems to be no satisfactory evidence that he went up the Hudson. See 
Winsor's America, IV, 7. 




|~ROATOKE ISLAND 



^arlestou 1670 
^Port Royal 1562 







rrcBch SettlemcBt 1564 
st.Aiigustine 1385 



FIRST SETTLEMENTS MADE 
ON THE EASTERN COAST 
OF NORTH AMERICA 

Virginia, by its first charter (i6o6), 
extended loo miles inland; by its 
second charter (1609) it was extended 
westward to the Pacific. 

The charters of Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, North Carolina, South Caro- 
lina, and Georgia made the Pacific the 
western boundary of these colonies. 

By the Treaty of 1763 (see page 153 
and colored map of the United States at 
the close of the Revolution) the Missis- 
sippi was made the western boundary 
of the British possessions south o£ 
Canada. 



49 



50 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1623-1G29 

charter giving them all the rights originally possessed by the first 
Company and the privilege of sending over colonists besides. 
They soon (1623) shipped a number of Walloons, or Belgian 
Protestants, to New Netherland. Part of the emigrants landed 
on Manhattan Island, but most of them went up the river and 
helped to build Fort Orange — now Albany. 

In 1626 the Company sent out Peter Minuit as governor; he 
purchased the Island of Manhattan from the Indians (1626) for 
"the value of sixty guilders," or about $24. The town of thirty 
houses on the island now received the name of New Amsterdam. 

57. Establishment of the patroon system. A few years later 
(1629), the Company established the patroon system in the hope 
of thereby promoting the rapid settlement of the colony. The 
patroon stood in the place of the old feudal lord ; under him the 
colonist played the part of serf or semi-slave. 

The following were the privileges of the master: (i) every 
member of the Company who bound himself to take or send over 
at least fifty emigrants over fifteen years of age was to receive the 
honorary title of " Patroon [or Patron] of New Netherland " ; 
(2) he was entitled to hold an estate having sixteen miles frontage 
on " one side of a navigable river, or eight miles on each side," and 
extending as far into the country " as the situations of the occu- 
piers will permit "; (3) as lord of the manor, he was empowered 
to hold civil and criminal courts on his estate, and from his deci- 
sions as judge there was practically no appeal ; (4) he had the 
right to appoint officers and magistrates in all cities and towns 
founded on his lands. This, of course, gave him almost entire 
control of such places, since the inhabitants had no voice in the 
elections; (5) he held his estate "as a perpetual inheritance," 
and by handing it down in the line of the eldest son could con- 
tinue to keep his vast property undivided in his famiily.^ 

On the other hand, all emigrants taken or sent out to New 
Netherland by a patroon were held as follows: (i) they bound 
themselves to serve him for a term of years (like the indented 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc.. No. 9. 



1G29-1640] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 51 



servants of Virginia planters, § 42) ; (2) they agreed to grind their 
grain in his mill and to pay for the grinding ; (3) they were not to 
hunt or fish without their master's permission ; (4) they pledged 
themselves not to weave any cloth for themselves or others, but 
to buy it from the Company. 

The master and his laborers were to "find 
means for supporting a minister and a school- 
master and a comforter of the sick." No pa- 
troon was permitted by the Company to engage 
in the fur trade exce^Dt at certain designated 
trading posts ; he was also to pay an export 
duty on all skins sent out of the colony. 

58. The Van Rensselaer and other estates; 
how the patroons lived. The Company gave up 
granting these very exceptional privileges in 
1 638-1 640 and opened the country to free emi- 
gration. But the patroons continued to enjoy 
the monopolies they had obtained. They had 
already taken possession of some of the most 
important points on the Delaware and the Hud- 
son (Manhattan Island excepted). The most 
noted of the patroons was Kihaen Van Rens- 
selaer. He obtained a grant which embraced 
the greater part of what are now Albany, Van 
Rensselaer, and Columbia counties, on the Hud- 
son. This princely estate covered more than a 
thousand square miles, and extended for twenty- 
four miles along the river. 

He and his brother capitalists on the Hudson 
lived in the midst of their tenants like the feudal 
barons in their castles on the Rhine. They collected their rents, 
held their courts, and at one time levied tolls on all vessels 
passing their estates. The Van Rensselaers, Van Cortlandts, 
Livingstons, Schuylers, and other wealthy families built elegant 
mansions on Manhattan Island or vicinity. In the summer they 



Land held by 
KiLiAEN Van 
Rensselaer 



52 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1633-1647 

went to their country places, in winter they returned to their 
homes on the island. Like the Virginia planters, they had their 
retinue of black servants in livery (for negro slavery was permitted 
in New Netherland). With the Virginians, these wealthy Dutch 
proprietors constituted the chief landed aristocracy of America. 

59. The Dutch on the Connecticut ; New Amsterdam in 1643 J ^^^^ 
trade and cheap lands. Not satisfied with holding the Delaware 
and the Hudson, the Dutch endeavored to establish settlements 
on the Connecticut. They first explored that noble river and 
opened trade with the Indians on its banks ; and on land which 
they purchased of the Pequots they built a small fort (1633) 
where the city of Hartford now stands. 

Ten years later (1643), a French Jesuit priest visited New 
Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. He describes the town as 
having a population of four or five hundred persons composed 
" of different sects and nations," This fact shows that the germ 
of the great city which now stands at the mouth of the Hudson 
was even then assuming that many-sided, cosmopolitan character 
which it has ever since retained. The West India Company had 
been mindful of the demands of education and had established 
(1633) a good school in New Amsterdam. It still flourishes 
under the name of the " School of the Collegiate Reformed 
Church," and is the oldest institution of learning in the United 
States (§ 93). 

But the colony did not grow. The patroon system kept the 
better class of emigrants away, and there was no freedom of trade. 
Most of the early governors were rapacious or inefficient, and cared 
nothing for the best interests of New Netherland. At length the 
government in Holland resolved to throw open the trade of the 
colony and to grant lands on easy terms to all comers. These 
measures had the desired effect, and emigration to the Dutch 
colony on the Hudson began in earnest. 

60. Peter Stuyvesant ; the people demand a share in the govern- 
ment ; the "Nine Men" ; attempted reforms. A few years later 
(1647), Peter Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch governors, came 



1G47-1656] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 53 

into power. He found no small political discontent among the 
colonists. Most of them had come from the Dutch Republic of 
Holland only to find less liberty in the New World than they had 
enjoyed in the Old. While the English colonists east and south 
of them made their own local laws, the settlers on the Hudson 
were under the control of a commercial company whose prime 
object was to pay large dividends to its stockholders. Cxovernor 
Stuyvesant had no faith in democracy, but he could not resist the 
demands of the colonists for a share in the government. The 
people were accordingly permitted (1647) to elect eighteen coun- 
selors, from whom the governor chose " Nine Men " to assist him. 

The " Nine Men " did excellent work. They protested against 
the heavy taxes and the enormous export duties imposed by the 
West India Company. They also called attention to the fact that 
the port charges were so exorbitant that trade was kept away. 
Stuyvesant answered that it was no fault of his if he had to serve 
greedy and tyrannical masters. Then the " Nine Men " petitioned 
the home government to take the management of the colony out 
of the Company's hands, to take off all restrictions on trade, to 
send over emigrants free, to clearly define the boundaries of New 
Netherland so as to avoid disputes with the English colonists, 
and finally to grant to the Dutch settlers a representative assem- 
bly such as their countrymen enjoyed in Holland. 

To prevent trouble the West India Company grudgingly granted 
a . larger measure of political liberty than the colonists had yet 
possessed. The better class of citizens in New Amsterdam were 
permitted to elect a body of magistrates " as much as possible 
according to the customs" of the city of Amsterdam in Holland. 
But when the day of election arrived the imperious Stuyvesant 
quietly appointed all the officers himself. 

61. Religious intolerance; treatment of Quakers. In matters 
of religion Stuyvesant was as arbitrary as he was in politics. He 
refused to permit any congregations to worship openly except 
those of the Dutch Reformed Church — the established Protestant 
Church of Holland. He ordered (1656) that any one preaching 



54 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [ic57-ig64 

without a license should be condemned to pay a fine of one 
hundred pounds, while each hearer was to pay a fine of twenty- 
five. The Company felt that this was pushing matters too far, 
since private dissenting worship was tolerated in Holland. They 
rebuked the governor and ordered him to grant all citizens " the 
free exercise of their religion within their own homes." 

The next year (1657) one of that Society of Friends which 
the Massachusetts authorities called the " cursed sect of heretics " 
(§ 96) came to New Amsterdam. The governor was furious. 
After repeated scourgings and solitary imprisonment in the dun- 
geon of the fort, the Quaker was finally driven out of the province. 
Later, the governor issued a proclamation prohibiting the public 
exercise of any religion but that of the Dutch Reformed Church 
" in houses, barns, woods, ships, or fields." For a third offense 
against this law the offender was to be flogged. 

The Company again rebuked Stuyvesant's misdirected zeal. 
This time the hot-headed governor obeyed orders, and persecu- 
tion ceased. 

62. England claims New Netherland, takes it (1664), and re- 
names it New York. But the end of Stuy\-esant's administration 
and of Dutch rule in New Netherland was at hand. England 
claimed the colony by virtue of Cabot's discovery (§ 11). The 
English had three powerful reasons for insisting on this claim. In 
the first place, a considerable number of English had settled in 
New Netherland ; next, the British government lost about ^10,000 
a year in customs duties through the Dutch smugglers who secretly 
carried Virginia tobacco to Holland (§ 48). But the third, and 
perhaps the chief reason why England was determined to possess 
New Netherland was that the king had resolved to have a strong, 
united, and compact line of colonies on the xA.tlantic coast. This 
was impossible so long as the Dutch held the Hudson, since a glance 
at the map shows that New Netherland was a geographical wedge 
separating New England from the English colonies on the south. 

Although England and Holland were then at peace, Charles II, 
assuming that the country on the Hudson was rightfully his, 



i6enG85] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 55 

quietly made over the whole of it to his brother James, Duke of 
York and Albany. James at once sent over a fleet under Colonel 
Nicolls to seize the prize. NicoUs (1664) demanded the surren- 
der of New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant replied, " I would rather 
be carried out dead than give up the fort." But the people were 
weary of the rule of the West India Company and were willing 
to accept the liberal terms promised by the English. The high- 
spirited governor could not help himself, and so sorrowfully sur- 
rendered. The Dutch flag was hauled down and the red cross of 
England rose triumphantly in its place. In honor of its ducal 
owner, New Netherland was now christened New York, Fort 
Orange became Albany, and New Amsterdam took the title of 
New York City. 

63. The *' Duke's Laws" ; the duke grants a Charter of Liberties 
(1683) ; repeals it (1685). Colonel Nicolls prepared a code (1665) 
known as the ''Duke's Laws," which established: (i) equal 
taxation; (2) trial by jury; (3) the obligation of military duty ; 
(4) freedom of religion to all Christians.^ 

Later (1683), Colonel Thomas Dongan, an Irish Catholic, who 
was then governor of New York, wrote to the Duke of York ; 
"The people generally cry out for an assembly." The duke 
reluctantly granted the colony (1683) a Charter of Liberties. 
This provided : (i) that every freeholder should have the right 
to vote for representatives to an assembly, whose laws (made by 
the governor's council and assembly jointly) should be subject to 
the duke's approval; (2) no taxes were to be levied except by 
consent of the assembly ; (3) entire freedom of religion was guar- 
anteed to all peaceable persons who should profess any recognized 
form of Christian faith.^ 

Two years later (1685), the duke became king of England 
with the title James II. It was at the time when his friend and 
ally, Louis XIV of France, was creating " a world-wide religious 
panic " by driving all Protestants out of France. Thousands of 
distressed and destitute Huguenots fled to England and to the 

1 See Brodhead's New York, II, -jo. 2 ibid., 383, 



56 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1685-1686 



English colonies in America. Wherever they settled they roused 
the fear and hatred of the colonists against the French monarch. 
James detested free institutions ; as for legislatures, he said he 
" could see no use for them." He at once wrote to Governor 
Dongan, " Our will and pleasure is that the charter be forthwith 
repealed." Thus early in its career the New York Assembly 
found the truth of the psalmist's advice, '' Put not your trust in 
princes." The king's mandate suppressed the Assembly and 
reduced the colony to the condition of a conquered province. 
To prevent the open expression of discontent the people were 
forbidden to have a printing press. On the other hand, James II, 
as a Catholic, keenly felt the severity of the English laws against 
members o|- that Church, and he now granted entire liberty 
throughout the colony " to all persons of what religion soever." 

64. Dongan's treaty with the Iroquois ; Sir Edmund Andros. 
Governor Dongan saw that the Iroquois (§ 32), or " Five Nations," 
formed the real bulwark of New York against the hostile designs 
of the French in Canada. He succeeded in securing the friend- 
ship of the most important tribes. The Iroquois chiefs said to 
him, "We will fight the French as long as we have a man left." 

Most of the Mohawks kept their 
word, but Louis XIV entrapped the 
rest of the " Five Nations " into a 
treaty of neutrality. Governor 
Dongan never grew slack in his 
defense of the colony ; after he re- 
tired from olhce he mortgaged his 
farm to raise money to equip the 
expedition sent (1690) against 
Canada. 

In 1686 James consolidated the 
provinces of New York, New Jer- 
sey, and New England under the 
name of the Dominion of New England, and made Sir Edmund 
Andros governor general of the province, with his headquarters at 




The Dominion of New 
England 



168&-1688] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 57 

Boston. The consolidation brought these colonies more directly 
under the king's control and by putting Andros in command made 
it easier to repel the designs of the French. Speaking of the new 
province, James said, " I will n-Ske it a tower of iron." 

65. Revolution in England; Louis XIV declares war against 
England and her colonies ; excitement in Boston. But the reign of 
James was near its close. It was quite generally believed in Eng- 
land that the king intended to overthrow the Protestant religion 
and the constitutional rights of the nation by force of arms. 
William, Prince of Orange, James' son-in-law and head of the 
Dutch Republic, was invited by a number of leading men of both 
political parties to come with an army to the defense of English 
liberty. He did so, and James fled to France ( 1688) . Louis XIV 
then declared war against England and her American colonies. 
When the news reached Boston the citizens rose and threw 
Andros, James' representative, into prison. 

In the city of New York a story was started that Nicholson, the 
deputy governor, was plotting to burn the town and massacre all 
Protestants. What made this report more absurd was the fact 
that there were hardly any Catholics at that time in New York, 
while the* Dutch and English Protestant population numbered 
about three thousand. 

66. Frontenac prepares to attack New York ; Jacob Leisler seizes 
the fort and is chosen governor. The danger of invasion from 
Canada was imminent. Frontenac, the French governor of 
Quebec, was preparing to attack the colony both by land and sea. 
Louis XIV had sent him secret orders to seize New York and either 
drive the people into the wilderness to starve, or imprison them 
at hard labor. This order did not except Catholics even, unless 
they would submit, and swear allegiance to the king of France. 

The "glorious Revolution" of 1688 made William of Orange 
king of England,^ but as Governor Nicholson of New York had 
not received official notification of the fact, he still considered 
James II as the true sovereign and declined to proclaim William 

1 See the Leading Facts of English History in this series. 



58 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [ifisg-icoi 

as his successor. For this reason Jacob Leisler, captain of a com- 
pany of New York militia, denounced the governor as a "papist." 
The captain had seen something of the sufferings of the fugitive 
Huguenots, and hated the name ^ CathoHc as bitterly and blindly 
as Louis XIV hated that of Protestant. Suddenly the report came 
that a French fleet was on its way up the harbor. The city was 
thrown into a panic, and Leisler, heading a band of citizens, 
seized the fort, declaring that he would hold it until King William 
should send a Protestant to demand it. 

Shortly after this Nicholson sailed for F^ngland, and an assembly, 
partially representing the colony, created Leisler governor. The 
property holders and conservative citizens were opposed to him, 
but the masses gave him their hearty support. For nearly two 
years (i 689-1691) he ruled New York as absolutely as Louis XIV 
ruled France. 

67. The French Canadians burn Schenectady ; Leisler calls the 
first American Congress ; execution of Leisler. Frontenac now 
(1690) secretly sent a force of French and Indians from Canada 
to attack Albany. They did not dare assault that place, but 
burned Schenectady, then the most western town in New York, 
and massacred most of the inhabitants. In this emergency Leisler 
took prompt action. He called a Colonial Congress to meet 
(1690) in the city of New York. To this Congress, the first in 
America, Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut sent delegates 
to confer with those of New York. It was resolved to raise an 
army to invade Canada. 

King William had appointed Colonel Sloughter governor of 
New York. In the autumn of 1690 an English captain arrived 
who claimed to represent him, and demanded the keys of the fort. 
As the captain failed to produce any authority for making the 
demand, Leisler refused to give up the keys. Fighting ensued 
and several persons were killed on each side. The next spring 
the new governor came, and the fort was promptly given up to 
him. Sloughter at once arrested Leisler and his son-in-law Mil- 
bourne on a charge of murder and high treason. They were 



1690-1701] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 59 

convicted ; then Governor Sloiighter, while drunk, signed Leisler's 
death warrant and he was hanged. For many years afterward 
New York was divided into two intensely bitter factions, — the 
Leislerites and the Anti-Leislerites. The former represented the 
mass of the people, the latter the wealthier and more influential 
citizens. The Leislerites looked upon their dead leader as a 
martyr in the cause of liberty; their opponents denounced him 
as a demagogue, a fanatic, and a usurper.^ 

68. Severe treatment of Catholics. Governor Sloughter, acting 
under instructions from King William (1689), restored the Assem- 
bly (§63) and granted liberty of conscience to all persons except 
Catholics. Some years later (1696) a plot was hatched in France 
for assassinating King William and restoring James II to the English 
throne. The news of this conspiracy excited great alarm in the 
province of New York. The colonists believed that the Canadian 
French were again preparing to ^ttack the settlements on the 
Hudson River, and that the Catholics of New York would take 
sides with the French, since they both held the same faith. 

In consequence of this alarm the governor of New York com- 
manded that all persons not Protestants should be disarmed. 
The Assembly (1700) ordered priests to leave the colony under 
penalty of imprisonment for life. The next year (i 701) the 
Assembly deprived Catholic laymen of the right to vote.^ Mean- 
w^hile WiUiam had restored the Charter of Liberties (§ 6;^), but 
with the omission of the toleration clause which had granted free- 
dom of worship ; hence the new form of charter virtually con- 
firmed the action of the Assembly against the Catholics. Six 
years later, William annulled the Charter of Liberties on the 
ground that it gave too much power to the people; he also 
greatly extended the authority of the royal governor. 

69. The Zenger case; freedom of the press established. In 1732 
a case came before the Supreme Court of New York which had a 

1 See Sparks' Leisler, 236 ; Brodhead's New York, II, 649. 

2 See Lodge's Colonies, 320; Winsor's America, V, 191; De Courcy and Shea's 
Catholic Church, ^^i. 



6o THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [173^1733 

most important bearing on the question of popular rights. Gov- 
ernor Cosby, an avaricious and unscrupulous ruler, brought a suit 
in that court to obtain a sum of money ; the court decided the 
case against him. In his rage the governor removed the chief 
justice and appointed a new judge. 

The colonists believed that if a judge could be removed at pleas- 
ure it would be impossible to get justice from the courts. But 
the people protested in vain, for the Assembly, which was wholly 
under Royalist influence, defended Cosby, and the only newspaper 
then printed in the colony did the same. 

At this juncture Peter Zenger, a German printer, came out 
boldly (1733) with the first number of an opposition paper — 
the New York Weekly Journal — devoted to the defense of the 
rights of the people. The Journal did not hesitate to attack 
the governor in the most high-handed way. It not only fired 
broadsides of editorials at \i\% administration but assailed him 
personally with showers of stinging jibes and satirical ballads. 

The sheriff seized the off ending, paper and burned it. Shortly 
afterward the pubHsher of it was arrested, thrown into prison, 
and accused of " false, malicious, seditious, and scandalous 
libel." When the case came up for trial the venerable Andrew 
Hamilton of Philadelphia — the foremost lawyer of his day — 
volunteered to defend Zenger. Hamilton offered to prove the 
truth of the charges which his client had made. The judge 
refused to hear him on the ground that the English law declared 
" the greater the truth the greater the libel." 

Hamilton then devoted his whole attention to the jury. He 
insisted that they should decide both the fact and the law of 
the case. His eloquent defense of the freedom of the press, 
and the wit, sarcasm, and skill with which he attacked the gov- 
ernor completely won over the jury. They brought in a ver- 
dict of " Not guilty." The verdict was hailed with shouts of 
applause ; the fact that the letter of the law was really against 
Zenger only made his friends shout the louder.^ 

1 See Hart's American History by Contemporaries, H, No. 72. 




By his Excellency 

William Cosby, Captain General and Governour in Chief 

of the Provinces of A'eiv^/-^, New-Jerfey^ and Territories thereon 
depending in America, Vice-Admiral of the fame, and Colonel in His Majefly's 
Army. 

A PROCLAIvl ATION. 

WHereas Ill-minded andDifaffe<5)ed Perfonshave lately difperfed 
in the City of New-Tork, and divers other Places, feveral 
Scandalous and Seditious Libels, but more particularly two Printed 
Scandalous Songs or Ballads, highly defaming the Admi nitration of 
His Majefty's Government in this Province , tending greatly to 
inflame the Minds of His Nfajefty's good 5ubje«5ls, and to diflurb 
the Publick Peace. Aid, Whereas the Grand Jury for the City and 
County of New- York did lately, by their Add refs to me, complain 
of thefe Pernicious Pra(5fices, and requefl me to ifTue a Proclamation 
for the Difeovery of the Offenders, that they might, by Law, receive 
a Punifhment adequate to their Guilt and Crime. / Have therefore 
thought fit, by and with the Advice of his Majefly's Council, to 
iffuethis Proclamation, hevehy Vvoxm^mgTwenty Pounds ai a Reward, 
to fuch Perfon or Perfons who fhall difcover the Author or Authors 
of the two Scandalous Songs or Ballads aforefaid, to be paid to the 
Perfon or Perfons difcovering the fame, as foon as fuch Author or 
Authors fhall be Convided of having been the Author or Authors 
{hereof- 

GIVEN under My Hand and Seal at Fort-George in New-York this Sixth Day 
of November, in the Eighth year of the Reign of Our Sovereign LordGKOKQE 
the Second, by the Graceof GOD of Great-Britain, France a W Ireland, KiNG, 
Defender of the Faith, iSc. and in the year of Our LORD, 1 7 3 4. 

By hisExceUencfs Command, \\r C Ci^'R'V 

Fred. Morris, D. Cl. Cont. VV . V^ V^ O D I . 

GOD Save the KING 



1733-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 



6l 



The decision of this case established the Hberty of the press 
in New York to criticise the acts of the government, and it 
encouraged other colonies to maintain the same liberty. That 
freedom, though liable to gross abuse, has nevertheless in many 
cases proved itself a safeguard of the rights of the people against 
the encroachments of arbitrary power. 

70. The Governor versus the Assembly ; the Assembly limits its 
money appropriations ; the Fort Stanwix Treaty Line. The joy 
shown at Zenger's acquittal revealed the determined spirit of 







i i \ \ 


. \ \n 






^<^Fon Oswego ; .■'' '.. '; 


/*^\ Jp 








Onondaga Castle |j, ,..^ 


<^ / (• Johrtstown ^ 




\ ^ il^^% 


[ A 


il / % 


, "f"--S.cIl4'ectadj>;f^--|| 




T I E. R R ^ I 


1 

V 




ill 




Present Boundary of Pennsj^ania 








Y ^ 


"V '' W/Mt Point II 





Fort Stanwix Treaty Line 
Made 1768 by the English colonists of New York and the Iroquois Indians 



resistance which existed against the oppressive use of authority. 
That spirit soon manifested itself in another form. The gov- 
ernor of New York regarded the Assembly mainly as a valuable 
labor-saving machine for collecting taxes, of which he pocketed 
a goodly share as salary for his services. Virtually he said to the 
representatives of the people : '' Your business is to raise whatever 
money I demand ; mine is to spend it as I see fit." 



62 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1736-1768 

The Assembly resented this attitude and (1736) refused to 
grant more money annually than should be required to meet the 
necessary expenses of the year. Later (1739), they voted to 
limit all appropriations to specified purposes. They were deter- 
mined to know just how the governor spent every shilling. 
Naturally he resented this action. The result was that from this 
time an almost incessant battle was waged between the titled 
representatives of royalty on the one hand and the taxpayers on 
the other. The contest was not confined to New York, but was 
carried on in all the colonies in which the governors were not 
chosen by the people. It grew more and more bitter and became 
in considerable measure one of the causes of the Revolution. 

Up to 1768 the colony of New York had no definite western 
boundary. But in that year a treaty was made with the Iroquois 
Indians, or Five Nations, by which the territory was divided. This 
treaty gave the Indians the western part of the country. It 
remained in their possession until the close of the Revolution, 
when it was thrown open to settlement. 

71. Summary. In 1609 Henry Hudson discovered the river 
which now bears his name. The Dutch took possession of the 
country, named it New Netherland, founded the city of New 
Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, and estabUshed the patroon 
system of colonization. In 1664 the English, under the Duke 
of York, seized New Netherland and named it New York. The 
people were given representation, and for a time reHgious liberty 
prevailed, but, later, fear of French invasion led to the enact- 
ment of severe laws against the Catholics. Jacob Leisler seized 
the fort of New York in order to defend the colony against the 
French ; he was convicted of treason and executed. Later, Peter 
Zenger came forward as the successful champion of freedom of 
the press. The constant disputes between the people and the 
royal governors over money appropriations became one cause of 
the Revolution. The western part of New Y^ork was not opened 
to settlement until after the close of the war. 



1617-1664] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 63 



III. New Jersey (1617) ^ 

72. New Jersey (161 7); the Dutch claim the country between 
the Hudson and the Delaware ; the English king grants the land 
to the Duke of York ; the name New Jersey. The Dutch, after 
opening the fur trade with the Indians on the Hudson, crossed 
over from Manhattan Island and built a fort at Bergen (161 7) 
on the west bank of the river. Later (1623), they built a fort 
on the Delaware nearly opposite the 
present site of Philadelphia, and claimed 
the territory between these two forts as 
part of their province of New Netherland. 

The English denied the validity of the 
Dutch claims and insisted that the dis- 
covery of the North American continent 
by Cabot gave them the right to the 
mainland as far south as the Spanish 
settlements in Florida. In accordance 
with this theory Charles II included this 
region in a grant which he made (1664) 
to his brother James, Duke of York. 
The duke sold (1664) the portion between the Hudson and the 
Delaware to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. 

Carteret had been governor of the island of Jersey, and during 
the English Civil War had made a most determined stand for 
King Charles I, the Duke of York's father. In honor of his loyalty 
the duke gave the colony the name of New Jersey. It was the 
first Enghsh province, except Maryland, which had a definite, 
natural, western boundary — namely, the Delaware River. 

73. Elizabethtown founded (1665); grant of a liberal constitu- 
tion ; dispute about land rents. Philip Carteret, a nephew of 
Sir George, went out as governor to New Jersey (1664) with a 




1 See Winsor's America, III, ch. xi; V, ch. iii ; Thwaites' Colonies, ch. ix; 
Fiske's Dutch and Quaker Colonies; Bancroft's United States (last revised edition) ; 
Macdonald's Select Charters, etc. ; Fisher's Colonial Era ; Lodge's Colonies. 



64 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1665-1676 

company of emigrants. They named their place of settlement 
(1665) Elizabethtown, out of regard for Lady Elizabeth, wife of 
Sir George Carteret. 

The proprietors of New Jersey granted the colonists a consti- 
tution ^ which conferred the power of taxation and of law-making 
on a Legislature of which the Assembly, or lower house, was chosen 
directly by the people. Liberty of conscience was granted to all 
peaceable persons. 

Berkeley and Carteret later (1670) demanded a land rent of 
a half penny per acre. The settlers refused to pay it on the 
ground that they had purchased their land from the Indians, 
who were the original and sole owners of it. 

74. The Quakers purchase West Jersey (1674) ; William Penn ; 
government of the colony ; religion. Disappointed in his plans 
of colonization, Berkeley sold his share of the territory (1674) to 
two English Quakers. Shortly after this transaction the colony 
was divided (1676) into the equal portions of East and West 
Jersey. Carteret held the eastern and the Quaker proprietors 
the western half of the province. 

WilHam Penn's name now first appears in American history. 
He, with several other EngUsh Quakers, obtained (1676) pos- 
session of West Jersey. Their object was to provide a refuge 
in the New World for their persecuted religious brethren. A 
settlement named Salem (1676) was made on the Delaware, and 
the next year (1677) Burlington was founded. Penn, with his 
fellow proprietors, wrote to the settlers in the true spirit of the 
Golden Rule, saying, "We cannot suffer if you prosper, nor 
prosper while you are injured." In their instructions to the 
commissioners of West Jersey the proprietors declared, " We put 
the power in the people." 

In accordance with this principle the new proprietors granted 
the colonists a charter (1676). It was very liberal in its pro- 
visions. It gave the people a direct voice in making their own 
local laws and in levying their own taxes.^ Unfortunately the 

J ?ee Macdonald's Select Charters, etc.. No. 31. 2 ibid., No. ^7. 



1G76-1688] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 65 

charter vested the executive power of the colony in a body of 
ten commissioners appointed by the Legislature, and in practice 
it was found that these commissioners generally made themselves 
masters of the commonwealth. 

Entire Hberty of worship was established ; for the charter 
declared that no one " on earth hath power to rule over men's 
consciences in religious matters." But somewhat more than 
twenty years later (1699), after the two colonies had been united, 
the people of New Jersey — following the example set by Eng- 
land, or perhaps in obedience to a mandate of the king — refused 
to tolerate the Catholic faith. That law remained on the statute 
books of the state for nearly a century and a half, or until 1844, 
but it had long been a dead letter. 

75. The Quakers and the Indians ; the Quakers buy East Jersey ; 
thrift and independence. The Quakers completely gained the 
confidence of the Indians by their fair dealing. The red men 
declared that if they found an Englishman sleeping in their path 
they would not molest him, but would say : " He is an English- 
man ; he is asleep ; let him alone." 

When Carteret died, Penn and his associates purchased (1682) 
the whole of East Jersey for ^3400, a sum which would not now 
buy a first-class business lot in Jersey City. The colonists pros- 
pered and the governor reported (1683), "There is not a poor 
body in all the province." 

Their spirit of independence was equal to their thrift. When 
the Duke of York endeavored to collect toll on vessels going up 
the Delaware, the people refused to pay it. The king of England 
himself, said they, cannot take his subjects' goods without their 
consent ; still less can his brother, the Duke of York. In the 
decided stand the Quakers then took, those men of peace antici- 
pated the utterances of the Revolution. 

76. Andros ; New Jersey becomes a royal province; President 
Witherspoon. In 1688 New Jersey was united with New York 
and New England under the government of Sir Edmund Andros. 
After he was forced to give up his office (§ 65) a period of great 



66 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1702-1765 

confusion ensued. New Jersey was claimed by New York, by the 
Quakers, and by the heirs of Carteret. So hot was the dispute 
that the people in despair declared that there was " no shadow 
of law or government left," but in the towns good order still 
prevailed. For the sake of peace the province was surrendered 
(1702) to the crown. 

When (1765) England finally resolved to tax the American 
colonists without their consent, John Witherspoon, a descendant 
of that stern old Scotch covenanter, John Knox, led the great 
movement of revolt in New Jersey. Later, after he had accepted 
the presidency of Princeton College, he won the reputation of 
being "as high 'a Son of Liberty' as any in America." He 
helped to overthrow the Tory, William Franklin, son of Benjamin 
Franklin, and the last royal governor of the province. 

Governor Franklin declared that if the colonists were right in 
saying that the British ministry had gone mad, the people of New 
Jersey were in the same predicament. But the Americans had 
this advantage : they at least had method — the method of inde- 
pendence — in their madness, and President Witherspoon^ w^ith 
other eminent patriots, including Governor Franklin's own father, 
stood ready to risk their fortunes and their lives to maintain that 
independence. 

77. Summary. In 1664 the Duke of York wrested the country 
between the Hudson and the Delaware from the Dutch and sold 
it to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The colony received 
the name of New Jersey, and the first settlement was made at 
Elizabethtown (1665). The colonists received a constitution 
which granted them liberty of conscience in matters of religion 
and gave them a voice in making the laws and levying the taxes 
of the colony. About ten years later William Penn and other 
Quakers purchased the western half of New Jersey and subse- 
quently the remaining half. Their object was to provide a refuge 
in America for persecuted people of their own faith. In 1702 the 
colony became a royal province. When (1765) England resolved 

1 See American Historical Review, I, 671. 



1497-1G08] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 6/ 

to tax the colonists without their consent, President Witherspoon 
of Princeton College headed the movement of revolt which culmi- 
nated in the war for independence. 



IV. Massachusetts (Plymouth Colony, 1620)^ 

78. Religious revolution in England ; the Puritans and the Sep- 
aratists. When, under Henry VII, John Cabot (1497) claimed the 
continent of North America for England (§ 11), that kingdom, 
like all Europe, maintained the Catholic religion as the only true 
faith. Had Henry planted colonies in America, he would have 
established Catholicism here and would have forbidden any other 
form of worship. 

Under Henry VIII a revolution took place. He repudiated 
the authority of the pope in England and estabhshed a new and 
independent national Church, which was compelled to acknowl- 
edge the king as its supreme head. LTnder Elizabeth this new 
national Church became definitively Protestant, although a con- 
siderable part of the population continued to keep up the Catholic 
form of worship in private. 

When James I came to the throne he found England divided 
between the Catholics, the Anglicans (or regular members of the 
established Episcopal Church), the Puritans, and the Separatists 
(or Independents). The Puritans were members of the Estab- 
lished Church who regarded the Protestant revolution in Eng- 
land as incomplete. They urged that the English worship should 
be '■''purified'' (as they said) from what Calvin called "Popish 
dregs." They desired the Episcopal clergy to give up wearing 
the surplice, making the sign of the cross in baptism, and using 
the ring in the marriage service. 

1 See Winsor's America, HI, ch. viii ; V, ch. ii ; Thwaites' Colonies, ch. vi ; Arber's 
Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, as told by Themselves, Their Friends, and Their 
Enemies ; Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims ; Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic ; 
Macdonald's Select Charters, etc. 



6S THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [16O8- 

The Separatists were a branch of the Puritans who had gone a 
step farther. " Seeing," as they said, that '^ they could not have 
the word freely preached and the sacraments administered without 
idolatrous gear, they concluded to break off from public churches 
and separate in private houses." 

James refused to permit any deviation from the forms of public 
worship established by law. He believed that dissent would lead 
to disloyalty, ^nd that if divisions were tolerated in religion the 
crown itself would be endangered. 

He formulated this conviction of the indispensable unity of 
Church and State in his favorite saying, " No bishop, no king." 
His harsh laws drove both loyal Catholics and loyal Puritans to 
despair. He said of the latter class, " I will make them conform 
or I will harry them out of the land." If this was to be the king's 
policy toward the Puritans who still remained in the Church, what 
could the Separatists who had seceded from it expect? 

79. A congregation of Separatists escape to Holland ; why they 
wished to emigrate to America. A small congregation of Separa- 
tists were in the habit of meeting privately at the house of William 
Brewster, the postmaster of the village of Scrooby, in the north- 
eastern corner of Nottinghamshire. Finding that they could not 
safely remain in England, they resolved to go to Holland *' where 
they had heard was freedom of religion for all men." They suc- 
ceeded (1608) in escaping from England and in getting to Leyden. 
There these plain English farmers learned different trades and 
managed, by dint of severe toil, to support themselves and their 
families. Ten years later, some of them began to think of embark- 
ing for America. William Bradford, one of their most prominent 
men, gives the following reasons for their desire to emigrate. 

1 . The hardships of their life were so great that many who had 
come to join them went back, preferring, as they said, "prisons 
in England rather than liberty in Holland." 

2. Some of them felt age creeping upon them, and saw with 
sorrow that exhausting labor was rendering their children ''decrepit 
in their early youth." 



1608-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 



69 



3. Furthermore, it was a sore grief to parents to see that often- 
times their children, when they grew up, were led astray by the 
"manifold temptations of the place," while others, leaving their 
homes, went to sea or entered the army. 

4. Finally, the Separatists saw that if they should continue to 
remain in Holland their descendants would in time forget not 



f ORKNEY IS. 







.Bristol ^-•^«^™^ t*- y^'--'' 1 

Southampton^ ^,-*^B E i ^ \ 



FRANCE \ 



The Pilgrim and the Puritan Emigration of 1620 and 1630 

only their native customs, but even their native language, — in 
fact, would practically cease to be Englishmen at all. 

By going to America they hoped to build up a strong, pros- 
perous English colony, enjoying entire liberty of worship and 
*' advancing the gospel in those remote parts of the world." 
Lastly, they hoped, as they said, to serve as " stepping-stones 
unto others for performing so good a work." ^ 

80. The Separatists and the "merchant adventurers"; the 
patent ; the joint-stock company. As the Separatists were too 
1 See Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 45-47. 



70 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i62o 

poor to cross the Atlantic at their own expense, they bargained 
with a body of " merchant adventurers " or speculators in London 
to provide vessels for them. A patent granted by the Virginia 
Company gave them the right to settle "about Hudson's River." 

They agreed to take the Oaths of Supremacy and of Allegiance. 
They thus bound themselves to recognize the king as the lawful 
head of the Church of England and as their rightful sovereign. 
James promised not to interfere with the undertaking, and when 
told that the emigrants expected to get their living by fishing, 
replied, with a spice of humor : " 'Tis an honest trade ; 't was the 
Apostles' own calling." 

A joint-stock company was organized, consisting of " merchant 
adventurers" and the outgoing settlers. The conditions were as 
follows : All the emigrants who could not pay ^lo into the general 
fund were to devote the results of seven years' labor to the " com- 
mon stock." Out of that stock they were to receive " meat, drink, 
and apparel." '' At the end of seven years . . . the houses [and] 
lands [were] to be equally divided" among the stockholders; 
each person sixteen years old or upward, at the time of sailing, 
to receive one share of the profits.-^ 

These were hard terms, for they required the colonists to 
pledge their whole time and strength for a long period and for 
a very uncertain result. Some of them indignantly declared that 
such conditions were " fitter for thieves and bondslaves than 
[for] honest men " ; but they could get no better. 

In 1620 they left Leyden for England, there to embark on 
their voyage across the Atlantic. It was a perilous undertaking 
and the prospect of success was small ; but, as Bradford said, 
" They knew that they were pilgrims, and looked not much on 
those things, but lifted their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, 
and quieted their spirits." In his farewell sermon their faithful 
pastor, John Robinson, spoke words of cheer, bidding them go 
forward in the belief that " the Lord had more truth and light 
yet to break out of his holy word." 

1 See Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 82. 



1620] 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 



71 



Cape Cod 



All told, the actual number of Pilgrims who set sail in the 
Mayflower was less than a hundred. Among those who went 
with them was Myles Standish, an English soldier who had fought 
in the wars in Holland. He was not a member of the Pilgrim 
congregation, but simply a true, brave-hearted man, who was glad 
to cast his lot with those who were as brave and true-hearted 
as himself. Of the Pilgrims proper the most prominent were 
Bradford, Brewster, Winslow, and Carver. 

On reaching Cape Cod the emigrants decided to settle on the 
New England coast, although their patent was *' for Virginia" 
only. Knowing this fact, some of the hired men threatened to use 
their liberty as they pleased. 
It seemed best, therefore, to 
form a plan of union for main- 
taining order. To this end 
the Pilgrim Fathers drew up 
a compact or " law and order 
league" (November 21, 
1620) in the cabin of the May- 
flower. By that compact,^ 
which received forty-one 
signatures, they formed them- 
selves into " a civil body pol- 
itic" and bound themselves as 
Christians and as loyal subjects of King James to enact " such 
just and equal laws ... as shall be thought most meet ... for the 
general good of the colony." They then chose John Carver gov- 
ernor. When Carver died William Bradford was chosen ; he filled 
the office for thirty-one years. 

After carefully exploring the coast, the Pilgrims found a satis- 
factory harbor and landed, December 21, 1620, on that bowlder 
which has ever since been known as Plymouth Rock. During the 
ensuing winter death visited them daily. When the Mayflowe?' 
sailed for England in the spring (1621) nearly half of the settlers 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 5. 




J2 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1620- 

were in their graves. But not one of the little band of survivors 
thought of returning in the ship, — they had come here resolved 
to make America their home. Their nearest civilized neighbors 
were a few Dutch on the Hudson and the Virginia colonists five 
hundred miles south of them. 

8i. The Pilgrims and the Indians. Governor Carver made 
a treaty with Massasoit, chief of a small neighboring tribe of 
Indians. The treaty, though not ratified by any oath, was faith- 
fully kept on both sides. Two years later (1623), the Indians of 
a tribe at Weymouth, about twenty-five miles north of Plymouth, 
conspired to kill off a small independent colony of English who 
had settled at that point (1622) and had provoked the savages by 
their bad conduct. Massasoit warned the Plymouth settlers of 
the plot, and told them that if successful the same tribe would 
next attack them. 

Captain Myles Standish, small of stature but great of heart, 
with eight followers, marched against the savages and soon 
brought back the head of one of the leaders. It was the first 
and last Indian war in which the Pilgrims took part until they 
rose to put down King Philip (1675) niore than half a century 
later. The Indians, in fact, were most helpful ; they showed the 
colonists how to plant corn, trap game, and catch fish to the best 
advantage (§ 28). 

82. The "Pilgrim Republic"; freedom of worship; govern- 
ment. The settlers at Plymouth, though acknowledging them- 
selves subjects of King James, practically formed themselves into 
a little republic. Their Church was bound by no creed. Its 
members simply signed a covenant by which they pledged them- 
selves " as the Lord's free people ... to walk in all his ways 
made known, or to be made known, to them." 

Politically all were equal. In the outset they assembled in 
town meeting to make necessary laws, to choose officers for the 
colony, and to act as a court of justice. Newcomers might take 
part in those meetings if a majority of the original colonists 
admitted them as " freemen," or voters ; but it was decreed that 



1G38-1G71] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 73 

no one should settle within the limits of Plymouth except by 
permission of the governor or two of his assistants. To-day the 
government of the United States, following that wise precedent, 
determines what emigrants may or may not land on our shores. 

In time the growth of the colony made it inconvenient for the 
whole population to gather in a single town meeting, and each 
of the different settlements (1638) sent two representatives to 
Plymouth to act for them. But even then the body of the peo- 
ple expressly retained the right to repeal the laws made by their 
representatives. 

Later (1644), the right to vote for a representative was limited 
to those who took the oath of fidelity to the colony, — those who 
refused to do so were ordered to leave the settlement. 

After the coming of the Quakers into the neighboring colony of 
Massachusetts Bay, a statute (1658) was enacted declaring that 
persons of that faith and all others who " opposed the good and 
wholesome laws of the colony . . . the true worship of God," 
or who refused to do military service, should be denied the right 
of suffrage. Finally (167 1), fifty years after the founding of 
Plymouth, suffrage, though not limited by church membership, 
was restricted to persons '' of sober and peaceable conversation, 
orthodox in the fundamentals of rehgion, and such as have also 
^20 of ratable [taxable] estate."^ 

The sturdy independence of the colonists manifested itself in 
a declaration which the Legislature of the ^' Pilgrim Republic " 
made in 167 1. That body then resolved that "as free-born sub- 
jects of the state of England . . . no act . . . shall be . . . imposed 
upon us at present or to come, but such as shall be made ... by 
consent of the body of freemen ... or their representatives, 
legally assembled." 

83. The "merchant adventurers"; Myles Standish goes to 
England ; the Pilgrims become free men. The growth of the 
colony was very slow. Lack of capital prevented the settlers 
from engaging in cod fishing, and the chief exports were furs 

1 See Winsor's America, III, 280 ; Brigham's " General Laws " of Plymouth, 258. 



74 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1625-1691 

obtained from the Indians. The " merchant adventurers," who 
were grievously disappointed at the small returns received, at 
length refused to do anything more to aid the colonists, though 
they insisted on holding them to their labor contract. Governor 
Bradford wrote that the " adventurers " finally threatened in their 
anger " that if we ever do grow to any good estate they will nip 
us in the head." 

In these straits the Plymouth people sent Captain Myles 
Standish (1625) to England to seek help. He could not get the 
contract canceled, but succeeded at length in borrowing ^150 
for the use of the colonists at fifty per cent interest. 

The next year (1626) the "merchant adventurers" sold out 
their share to the colonists for ^1800, — equal probably to more 
than $30,000 now, — to be paid in nine annual installments. The 
attempt to hold property in common had completely broken down. 

Then the whole colony went to work with a will, and in six 
years had discharged the debt and were free men. In future all 
that they earned was their own. Meanwhile they tried to obtain 
a royal charter which should give them power to regularly organize 
a government. In this they failed ; but they obtained a patent 
from the Council of New England which granted them a certain 
fixed territory (1629), but nothing more. 

84. The Massachusetts Bay Colony absorbs Plymouth Colony 
(1691). In 1630 the Massachusetts Bay Company settled Boston. 
The growth of the new colony was comparatively rapid, and after 
a tinie the people of Massachusetts endeavored to secure the 
annexation of Plymouth. But the Plymouth people preferred to 
stand by themselves ; as one of their chief men quaintly said, 
the best of them had no desire " to trot after the Bay horse." 
Massachusetts, however, succeeded in her plans, and in 1691 a 
royal charter consolidated the two colonies. This, of course, 
ended the history of Plymouth as a distinct colony. But the 
little Pilgrim republic had made its record and could afford to 
merge its political life in that of the stronger and richer Puritan 
commonwealth. 



1628-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 75 

The Pilgrims were the first settlers who obtained a permanent 
foothold on the New England coast. In religious matters they 
showed remarkable tolerance. They too were the first colonists 
of the New World who established the management of all public 
affairs in town meeting. Thereby they feid the foundation in 
America of that democratic system which ripened in time into 
''government of the people, by the people, and for the people." 

IV^. Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630)^ 

85. The Puritan emigration to New England; John Endicott ; 
charter of Massachusetts Bay Colony. The emigration (1620) of 
the Pilgrims to America (§ 80) was the forerunner of a far greater 
emigration on the part of the Puritans ten years later. 

Political and religious persecution drove them to seek a refuge 
in New England. John Endicott, a Puritan of the Puritans, con- 
ducted the first party of emigrants (1628) to a point on the shores 
of Massachusetts to which they gave the biblical name of Salem. 
In his fiery zeal Endicott (1635) slashed the red cross out of the 
Enghsh flagf because it seemed to him an emblem of popery ; and 
he shipped two members of his Council back to England for insist- 
ing on making use of the Episcopal prayer book in public worship. 

The year after Endicott sailed, a number of wealthy and influ- 
ential Puritans obtained a royal charter - granting them all the ter- 
ritory in New England lying between a point three miles north of 
the Merrimac River and a point three miles south of the Charles 
River. Westward the grant extended to the Pacific. 

This charter empowered the Massachusetts Bay Company of 
England (i) to make laws, provided they should not be "con- 
trary to the laws of England " ; (2) to carry on trade ; (3) to 

1 See \Vinsor's America, III, ch. ix ; V, ch. ii ; Thwaites' Colonies, ch. vi-vii. 
Macdonald's Select Charters, etc. ; Winsor's History of Boston; Hildreth's United 
States; Doyle's Puritan Colonies; Palfrey's New England; Fiske's Beginnings of 
New England ; Barry's Massachusetts ; Fisher's Colonial Era ; B. Adams' Emanci- 
pation of Massachusetts; C. F. Adams' Episodes of Massachusetts History, 

2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., Np. 8. 



76 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1630- 

drive out obnoxious persons and intruders. Nothing was said 
about the establishment of any form of worship or of rehgious 
Hberty. It was practically the charter of a trading company, and 
it seems to have been understood that the government of the 
colony was to remain in the hands of the corporation in England. 
86. John Winthrop ; settlement of Boston (1630); large emigra- 
tion ; the Puritan Church ; Puritan government. John \Mnthrop, 
a man of -wealth and education, was elected (1629) governor of the 
Company. Believing, as he said, that the Puritans had " no place 
left to fly unto but the wilderness," he quietly took the charter 
with him and led a large number of emigrants (1630) from Eng- 
land to Massachusetts. 
Not liking Salem, Winthrop 
went to Charlestown; a 
little later, the colonists 
moved across the river to 
the three-peaked peninsula 
of Shawmut, which they named Boston (1630). Several other 
settlements were made, and each of these towns managed its own 
local affairs in town meeting. In fact, each one ^yas '' a little 
republic, almost complete in itself." 

One of the first acts of the settlers was to form a covenant 
Church similar to that of Plymouth (§ 82). Two Puritan minis- 
ters were chosen, and all the inhabitants were to be assessed to 
pay for the "maintenance of these ministers." Before the end 
of the year a thousand emigrants, bringing many " indented ser- 
vants " (§ 42), arrived, and in the course of the next ten years 
(i 630-1 640) more than twenty thousand colonists settled in New 
England. They were men who came not from hope of gain but 
to obtain that religious and political hberty w^hich was denied them 
at home. They represented the flower of Enghsh Puritanism. 

The original colonists (that is, the stockholders of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Company) established a government which was 
practically independent of both king and parliament. By the 
provisions of the charter the " freemen," or legal voters, were to 



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1630-1641] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS jy 

elect a governor, deputy governor, and a council of eighteen 
assistants. This governing body was to meet in a " general 
court," or legislature, and make all needful laws, not contrary to 
the laws of England. 

87. Alteration in the form of government; limitation of suf- 
frage ; the " freeman's oath." At the first meeting of the General 
Court (1630) the form of government was altered. The freemen 
agreed to surrender a part of their political power and to let the 
assistants choose the governor and his deputy from their own num- 
ber. But less than two years later, the freemen (1632) took this 
power out of the hands of the assistants and resumed their charter 
right to elect the governor and deputy governor by choosing such 
persons as they deemed fit. 

In the meantime a large number of men had petitioned the 
General Court to be permitted to vote. Their request was granted 
on their taking an oath of fidelity to the colonial government. 
Later (1643), the clause of the magistrates' oath requiring the gov- 
ernor and assistants to swear allegiance to the king was dropped, 
and for many years all public recognition of royal authority ceased 
in Massachusetts. 

88. Important laws enacted ; suffrage limited to church members 
(1631) ; the "Body of Liberties" of 1641 ; liberal measures. In 
1 63 1 two very important laws were enacted. Following the 
example set by Plymouth (§ 82), the authorities prohibited any 
person from settling within the territory of Massachusetts Bay 
without leave from the Company. 

Secondly, suffrage was limited by the following statute : " To 
the end [that] the body of the commons may be preserved of 
honest and good men ... no man shall be admitted to the free- 
dom of this body politic [that is, no one could become a citizen 
and a voter], but such as are members of some of the churches 
within the limits of the same." ^ This law practically made the 
church members of the colony, and not the towns, the real unit 
of government (§ 174). 

1 See Massachusetts Records, I, Z"]. 



78 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i634-igg4 

In 1 64 1 the magistrates, yielding to pressure by the freemen, 
drew up a code of laws known as the "Body of Liberties"^ which 
protected all classes. One of its provisions was that " every man, 
whether inhabitant or foreigner," voter or non- voter, should have 
the right to make any "necessary motion, complaint [or] petition" 
in any " court, council, or town meeting.!' 

Following this act the General Court (1647) granted to all 
persons of good character, though they were not church members, 
the right to vote in town meeting on local questions. They also 
had the right to serve on juries and offer themselves as candidates 
for town offices. 

The liberal movement did not stop here. The conditions of 
admission to certain church and civil privileges were relaxed by 
a measure derisively called by its opponents the " Halfway Cove- 
nant " (1662). Whether the "Halfway Covenanters" obtained 
the political rights enjoyed by regular church members is still a 
matter of controversy.^ 

Two years later (1664), the General Court, finding it expedient 
to conciliate the king, made a further concession. They gave to 
all persons paying a certain tax, who could show a certificate of 
orthodoxy signed by an approved minister of the colony, the privi- 
lege of making application for the right to vote.^ 

89. Establishment of a House of . Representatives (1634); pur- 
pose of the Puritans. But while these changes were taking place 
an event of no small importance occurred. The General Court 
had levied a tax to build a palisade against the attacks of Indians. 
The leading citizens of Watertown refused to pay the demand, 
on the ground that there should be no taxation without repre- 
sentation. 

Their refusal led to the establishment of a House of Repre- 
sentatives (1634) consisting of two persons elected by ballot by 
the freemen of each town. The men so chosen met with the 
governor and his assistants to advise with them respecting the 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 17. 2 See the New Englander, LVI, 
93; and Hill's Old South Church, I, 8, vs. iii. 3 See Massachusetts Records, I, S7. 



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I63i-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 79 

raising of public money, and to take part in making all needful 
laws. Thus Massachusetts became the second English colony 
(§ 43) to obtain the privilege of representative government ; but 
in this case it was the work of the people themselves, not, as in 
Virginia, the gift of a company resident in England. 

The avowed purpose of the settlers of Massachusetts was to 
establish an independent Puritan state composed of those, and 
those only, who professed their faith. They believed themselves 
to be a divinely chosen people. " God sifted a whole nation," 
said Governor Stoughton, " that he might send choice grain 
over into this wilderness." Their intention. Governor Winthrop 
declared, was '' to square all their proceedings by the rule of 
God's w^ord " as they understood it. They contended that their 
charter gave them the exclusive ownership and control of Mas- 
sachusetts (subject of course to the king), and in that charter 
they believed they found authority to expel any one who should 
attempt "annoyance to said colony." 

90. Results of the exclusive policy of Massachusetts ; resist- 
ance to the king. But this exclusive policy had very important 
political results : (i) it moved the king to demand the surrender 
of the Massachusetts charter ; (2) it roused the colonists to evade 
or resist that demand, which they did with entire success for more 
than half a century ; (3) on the other hand, the restriction of the 
right of suffrage to church members (§ 88) endangered the sta- 
bility of the colonial government. Only about one fourth of the 
adult male inhabitants belonged to the Church, and the result 
was that three quarters of the men of Massachusetts had to 
submit, or preferred to submit, to laws which were made and 
enforced by the remaining quarter. 

The first demonstration of resistance to the king was unmis- 
takable. When he (1634) threatened to take away the charter, 
the Massachusetts authorities took decisive action. They ordered 
new forts to be built and an alarm signal to be set up on Beacon 
Hill in Boston. Furthermore they commanded that citizens 
should be drilled in the use of arms, and they encouraged the 



8o THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i634- 

casting of bullets by making them pass current as money at the 
rate of a farthing each.^ Finally, to prevent the king's spies from 
reporting what they were doing, they passed a law (1637) order- 
ing that no stranger or suspicious character should be permitted 
to remain in the colony.^ 

91. Roger Williams attacks the charter and the laws ; he flies 
to Narragansett Bay. At this critical period, when the charter 
was in peril, a new trouble arose. Roger Williams, an impetuous 
young Separatist minister (§ 78), had come over (1631) from 
England to Boston. The Puritan churches had not yet openly 
broken off all connection with the Church of England. Williams 
blamed them for not taking this final step. After preaching for a 
time in Salem, he removed to Plymouth and labored for the con- 
version of the Indians. While in the '' Old Colony " Williams 
wrote a book, apparently not intended for publication, in which 
he attacked the Massachusetts charter. He declared that since 
the territory belonged originally to the Indians, the king had no 
power to grant it to the colonists. 

Later, he withdrew this attack and even offered his book '' to 
be burnt " ; but he now assailed the authorities on another point. 
The General Court had ordered (i 634-1 635) that every man, 
whether a church member or not, should swear to obey the laws 
and to defend the colony. Those who twice refused to take this 
oath were to be banished. 

Williams, who had returned to Salem, preached against this law. 
He declared that the Puritan authorities had no moral right to 
force an unconverted person to take an oath. He also denied 
their right to punish those who refused to attend religious meet- 
ings, or who violated the first four commandments, except " in 
such cases as did disturb the civil peace." 

The General Court summoned the preacher to retract, but he 
stood fast in his '' rocky strength." The Court then (1635) ordered 
him to leave the colony, but finally allowed him to remain until 
spring, provided he did not " go about to draw others to his 

1 See Massachusetts Records, I, 137. 2 ibid., I, 196. 



1635-1637] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 8 1 

opinions." Mr. Williams insisted on preaching in his own house 
on the prohibited points, and the authorities dispatched a con- 
stable to arrest him.-^ He fled through winter snows, and at the 
peril of his life, to the hospitable hut of Massasoit (§ 8i) on Nar- 
ragansett Bay. He remained in that chief's smoky wigwam until 
spring, when he went forth and founded (1636) the colony of 
Providence. 

92. The case of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. The Puritan authorities 
had next to deal with a case more aggravating even than that 
of Roger Williams. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of " ready 
wit and bold spirit," had formed a kind of woman's club to dis- 
cuss the sermons preached in Boston and vicinity. All went well 
until Mrs. Hutchinson began to indulge in sharp criticism. She 
commended the teaching of her friend, the Reverend Mr. Cotton, 
and of her brother-in-law, the Reverend Mr. Wheelwright, but she 
declared that the other ministers made altogether too much of 
religious ceremonies and church attendance and not half enough 
of faith. 

The discussion waxed so hot that Winthrop said the colonists 
were split into two hostile parties, — one of "works" and the 
other of '* faith." A company of militia who were about to 
march against the Indians were unwilling to move because their 
chaplain was accused of being " under a covenant of works," 
— or, in other words, of being more Jew than Christian. Next 
the dispute got into poHtics, and there was a Hutchinson and an 
Anti-Hutchinson candidate for governor. 

Finally, a meeting of ministers formally accused Mrs. Hutch- 
inson of teaching no less than twenty-nine ''cursed opinions." 
Her brother-in-law, Mr. Wheelwright, who was said to hold the 
same dangerous views, was convicted of sedition, heresy, and 
contempt, and was banished (1637) from the colony. He went 
with some friends to New Hampshire and founded Exeter. 

When Mrs. Hutchinson was brought to trial, she declared 
that God had revealed himself directly to her. " How? " asked 

1 See Palfrey's New England, I, ch. x, 405-412 ; Arnold's Rhode Island, I, 27-39. 



82 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [ig35-ig47 

her examiners. "By the voice of his own spirit to my soul," she 
repHed. She was expelled from the Church, " given over to 
Satan," and banished. She, with her husband and some friends, 
made a settlement on Rhode Island. 

93. The Boston Latin School (1635); Harvard College (1636); 
establishment of public schools (1647). Meanwhile the people of 
Massachusetts were taking action for the instruction of those who 
were to succeed them. Some citizens of Boston (1635) founded 
the Boston Latin School, — the oldest educational institution 
established by English settlers in the United States (§ 59). 
Among the early pupils of that justly celebrated school we find 
the names of Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams, two of the 
stanchest patriots America ever produced. 

The next autumn the General Court voted ^400 — a large 
sum for the colonists of that day — to found a college. Two 
years later (1638), Reverend John Harvard left property to it 
valued at ^750, and gave to it his valuable library. In honor 
of these bequests the institution was named Harvard College. 
This Puritan university was wholly unsectarian. Its first seal had 
for its motto the single expressive Latin word Veritas} 

The next year (1639) — the same year in which the first press 
in the English colonies was established at Cambridge — the citi- 
zens of Dorchester ordered that a free school should be set up in 
that town. Like the Boston Latin School, it was for boys only ; 
girls then, and for many years to come, received all their instruc- 
tion at home. 

In 1647 the General Court took action on a broad scale. It 
declared : In order " that learning may not be buried in the 
grave of our fathers " every township of fifty householders shall 
hire a schoolmaster " to teach all such children as shall resort to 
him to write and read." ^ The wages of the teacher were to be 
paid in such manner as the people should determine in town 
meeting. 

1 See Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, I, No. 137. 

2 See Massachusetts Records, II, 203. 



1643-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 83 

This law of 1647 established public schools that in time were 
to become " cheap enough for all, and good enough for the 
best." It laid the foundation of the free common-school system 
of the United States. 

94. The New England Confederation (1643). In 1643 the four 
colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New 
Haven formed a political and religious Confederation.^ Its four 
chief objects were to keep the Dutch out of the Connecticut 
Valley, to put down insurrections of the Indians, to apprehend 
fugitives from justice, assist masters to recover runaway appren- 
tices and slaves, and to maintain the purity of the orthodox faith. 

But more than this, the people of these four colonies felt that 
such a union would help them to maintain their liberties in case 
the king should threaten them. The Confederation lasted about 
forty years, but its importance practically ceased in half that 
time. It was a prophecy of that union of all the colonies which 
was formed late in the next century and which was destined to 
secure American independence. 

95. George Fox founds the Society of Friends or Quakers. 
Shortly after the New England Confederation went into operation, 
George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, began to 
preach in England. He declared that God makes himself known 
directly to the human heart, and that whoever follows this divine 
"inner light" is sure of salvation. The Puritans regarded the 
Bible as the supreme rule of life. In their eyes George Fox was 
a revolutionist, striking at the very foundations of both Church 
and Scripture. But more than this, he seemed to most men 
of that age to threaten to destroy the bonds that hold society 
together. They accused him of " troubling the world by preach- 
ing peace to it." 

(i) The Quakers conscientiously refused to take any form of 
oath. They would not give evidence in this way in a court of 
justice or swear allegiance to any form of government. (2) Believ- 
ing that war was wrong, they would not bear arms in defense of 
See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc, No. 19. 



84 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1656- 

the state or of their own homes. (3) They refused to pay taxes 
for the support of any ministry or church. (4) Beheving that all 
men are equal in the sight of God, they refused to address any 
one, no matter what his rank, by any other title than that of 
"Friend": they spoke rudely to magistrates; they insisted on 
keeping on their hats in courts, and would not take them off ^ to 
the king himself. They were mercilessly treated in England ; and 
some of them, driven half-crazy by brutal punishments, indulged in 
actions which to-day would be regarded as proof of insanity. The 
General Court of Massachusetts, hearing of these things, ordered 
(1656) that a day of fasting and prayer should be kept for fear 
that the teachings of the English Quakers should spread abroad. 

96. Arrival of Quaker missionaries (1656) ; action against 
Quakers ; Episcopalians and Baptists. Shortly after this day of 
fasting and prayer two Quaker women arrived (1656) at Boston. 
They came to convert the New England colonists. The authori- 
ties threw them into jail, burned their books, and as soon as 
possible sent them to the West Indies. 

The General Court believed that the charter of the colony em- 
powered them to exclude all persons whom they considered to 
be obnoxious. In accordance with that conviction they enacted 
(1656) a severe law against the "cursed sect of heretics . . . 
commonly called Quakers." The act imposed a fine of ;^ioo 
on the master of any vessel who should bring one of these 
people into the colony, and it ordered that every Quaker who 
entered Massachusetts should be severely flogged and then kept 
in close confinement until he could be sent to distant parts.^ 

But neither cruel scourgings, nor the cutting off of ears, nor 
threats of w^orse punishments could keep out these fervent apostles 
of the ^' inner light." They believed it to be as much their duty 
to preach to the Puritan Fathers as the Puritans believed it theirs 
to preach to the savages. 

1 See Gardiner's History of the English Commonwealth, III, 106-110 ; Bryant and 
Gay's United States, II, 174. 

2 See Hazard's State Papers, I, 630, or Massachusetts Records, III, 415. 



1658-1677] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 85 

Baffled and exasperated, the General Court finally resolved, 
as they said, " to present the point of the sword toward the 
Quakers," and let them rush on it if they would. An act was 
passed (1658) making it death for a banished Quaker to return 
to the colony. The principle was not new, for a similar law 
respecting Jesuit and other CathoHc priests had been on the 
Massachusetts statute books for many years. 

Under this act four Quakers — one of whom was a woman — 
who had come back after having been twice banished were hanged 
on Boston Common (1661).^ These were the first and also the 
last persons of this faith who were put to death in Massachusetts. 
But nearly a quarter of a century later the English authorities 
were killing Covenanters by hundreds, and drowning women in 
Scotland for refusing to conform to the Established Church. 

The last exciting case of Quaker missionary work was that of 
Margaret Brewster (1677). She entered the Old South Meeting- 
house in Boston during the Sunday service. Margaret was 
dressed in sackcloth, her face was smeared with lampblack, and 
her head covered with ashes. She had come, she said, like the 
prophet Jonah, to call the people of Boston to repent. Judge 
Samuel Sewall, who was present, says in his diary that her sudden 
appearance " occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar 
that I ever saw." Margaret was condemned to be tied to a 
cart's tail and whipped through the streets. With her the con- 
flict ended, and the Puritans gave up trying to silence these new 
missionaries. Quaker persistence and Quaker nonresistance had 
fairly carried the day. 

Meanwhile the Massachusetts authorities had sent (1660) a 
most humble, not to say servile, address to the king^ in which 
they professed their entire loyalty. But in a declaration of their 
charter rights which they drew up the following year they took a 
very decided stand. ^ In that document they claimed the power 
to defend the colony against all persons who should attempt to 

1 See Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, I, Nos. 140-142. 

2 See Hazard's State Papers, H, 579. 3 ibid., II, 591. 



S6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [ig75-ig7o 

annoy it, and they added a protest against the recent Navigation 
Act (§ 48). Later (1662), they promised His Majesty not to 
drive out any more Episcopalians (§ 85). 

Baptists had been forbidden to preach and had been repeatedly 
banished. President Dunster of Harvard College had embraced 
certain Baptist views. He was compelled to resign (1654) and to 
give bonds not to preach. But by 1674 toleration so far prevailed 
that a member of that denomination wrote, " The church of the 
baptized [at East Boston] do peaceably enjoy their Hberty." 

The CathoUcs first began public worship in the colony after the 
establishment of our national independence. The Unitarians and 
Universalists obtained toleration about the same time with the 
Catholics. 

97. Eliot's work among the Indians ; his Indian Bible. The 
Reverend John Eliot of Roxbury — "the Apostle to the Indians" 
— had long been engaged (1646-1675) in his noble work. He 
believed that the red men were the descendants of the lost tribes 
of Israel. He founded a settlement (165 1) of "Praying Indians" 
at Natick, and (1653) he published, after many "heart breakings" 
and years of toil, his translation of the Scriptures into the Indian 
language. It was the first Bible printed by an English colonist 
on the American continent. In the terrible King Philip's War 
a number of Eliot's " Praying Indians " acted as military guides 
to the whites, while others fought in behalf of the colony. 

98. King Philip's War (1675-1676) ; cause of the war ; events ; 
results. So long as Massasoit (§81) lived he remained friendly 
to the whites ; but his son, " King Philip," had no love for them. 
The colonists had purchased Indian territory until they had 
crowded Philip's tribe into two or three narrow necks of land 
projecting into Narragansett Bay. The savage chief saw that the 
time was soon coming when the English would own all the hunt- 
ing grounds, and when his people must emigrate, starve, or fight. 
He chose to fight. 

Philip looked upon Eliot's " soft-hearted^ * Praying Indians ' " 
(§97) with suspicion and contempt. One of these Indians told 



1G75-1G76] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 8/ 



the governor of Plymouth that " King Philip " was preparing to 
make war. Some of that chief's followers murdered the informer. 
The Plymouth authorities arrested and hanged them. Phihp 
retaliated by an attack (1675) on Swansea, the town nearest his 
headquarters at Mount Hope. 

For some time the war was confined to southern Massachusetts 
and vicinity, but gradually the Indian tribes in the western part 
of the colony joined Philip. It now became evident that the 
struggle was to be a desperate one, especially in the Connecticut 
Valley, where the white settlements were small and scattered. 

The colonists had the advantage in numbers and in arms, but the 
Indians knew the forests perfectly, they were as quick and stealthy 
as wild-cats, and they were pretty well supplied with muskets. 
Brookfield and Deerfield 
were attacked and burned, 
but Hadley escaped. Ac- 
cording to tradition that 
town was saved by the sud- 
den appearance of a vener- 
able white-haired man who 
rallied the inhabitants and 
drove off the savages. The 
mysterious leader then dis- 
appeared. He was the 
regicide Goffe (§116), 
who had long lived con- 
cealed in the town. A few ^^^^'^ P«^^^^'^ ^^^^ 

weeks later (1675) the Indians surprised and cut to pieces a body 
of ninety men — *'the very flower of Essex" — at "Bloody 
Brook," near Deerfield. Then the New Englanders resolved to 
" root this nest of serpents out of the world." 

The next winter a colonial force, a thousand strong, burst into 
the Indian fort of the Narragansetts on the west shore of Narra- 
gansett Bay. They set fire to the wigwams in the inclosure, and 
scores of Indians — helpless old men, women, and children — 




8S THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1676-1684 

perished in the flames. On the other hand, the savages burned 
(1676) Lancaster, Groton, Marlborough, Medfield, and smaller 
towns. The temper of the Indians was illustrated by Canonchet, 
chief of the Narragansetts. He was captured, and when told he 
was to be shot, he answered, " I like it well, I shall die before 
my heart becomes soft." 

A little later, Captain Turner of Boston gained a great victory 
over the savages near Turner's Falls on the Connecticut. Then 
the Indians saw that fate was against them and they began to lay 
down their arms and beg for peace. 

It was the custom in England to sell prisoners taken in the 
civil wars. Following this example, the colonists sold many of 
their red captives as slaves to the planters of the West Indies. 
King Philip's wife, and his son, a boy of nine, were disposed of 
in this manner. Not long afterward. Captain Church of Ply- 
mouth, a famous fighter, surprised Philip near Mount Hope. 
The savage ''king" w^as shot by one of his own men who had 
turned against him. At last, as Cotton Mather said, the colonists 
" had prayed the bullet into his heart." The death of the great 
chief virtually ended the contest. This was the last war between 
the whites and the natives in southern New England, — the 
power of the Indians in that section was broken forever. 

The losses of the war were very heavy. More than half of the 
towns in Massachusetts had been burned, and a tenth of all the 
fighting men in New England had either fallen in battle or had 
been carried off captive. Plymouth Colony suffered most of all. 
Its war debt exceeded in value the entire personal property of the 
inhabitants, but by years of toil they at last paid off every dollar 
of it, principal and interest. 

99. Charles II and the Massachusetts Colonial charter ; the char- 
ter falls (1684). But Massachusetts had next to deal with some 
one far greater than "King Philip." Charles II confirmed (1662) 
the Massachusetts charter on five conditions: (i) the colonists 
were to repeal all laws contrary to those of England ; (2) they were 
to take the oath of allegiance ; (3) justice was to be administered 



1684-1688] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 89 

in the king's name ; (4) liberty of worship was to be granted to 
EpiscopaUans ; (5) all persons of respectable character, competent 
estate, and orthodox in reUgion were to be allowed to vote.^ 

The General Court had partially comphed with the order respect- 
ing the administration of justice in the king's name, but not with 
the other demands. The commonwealth still refused to permit 
appeals from the colonial courts to the royal courts in England. 

Commissioners were now (1664) sent over by the king to hear 
complaints. Plymouth Colony, Rhode Island, and Connecticut 
agreed to comply with the demands of the crown, but Massachusetts 
refused to permit the commissioners to sit as a court of appeal. 

Later, however, in the hope of saving their charter, the General 
Court ordered the oath of allegiance to the king to be administered. 
This submission, however, made little difference in the end ; for 
Charles was determined to rule absolutely and to leave no char- 
tered rights in England or in the colonies to resist his will. 

Massachusetts declared (1681) that she no longer withheld 
liberty of worship from Episcopalians or Baptists (§ 96) ; but it 
was easy to find other grounds of complaint, and it was moved in 
the king's court in London that the colonial charter be annulled ; 
no time was given to the colonists to plead their case, and (1684) 
the charter fell. This was the end of the Puritan commonwealth. 
Henceforth it was to be ruled as a province of the crown. 

100. Sir Edmund Andros ; royal instructions ; his rule ; his 
overthrow ; results of the English Revolution of 1688. James II, 
the successor (1685) of Charles II, sent out Sir Edmund Andros 
to govern " the Dominion of New England " (§ 64). 

Andros, with his self-appointed council, was authorized : (i) to 
enact laws " as near as conveniently may be to those of Eng- 
land " ; (2) to organize courts of justice; (3) to levy taxes; 
(4) to call out the militia; (5) to grant Hberty of conscience to 
all persons and to encourage the Episcopal form of worship. 

He faithfully carried out his instructions. He opened the Old 
South Meeting-house in Boston on Sunday afternoons for the 
1 See Hazard's State Papers, II, 605-607. 



90 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1G84-1G89 

Church of England service. He imprisoned the Reverend John 
Wise of Ipswich, and five other leading citizens of that town, for 
refusing to pay a tax levied upon them without their consent. 

By the fall (1684) of the colonial charter (§ 99) every acre of 
land in Massachusetts was forfeited to the king. Andros gave the 
prominent real-estate owners of the colony their choice between 
paying an annual ground rent to his royal master or surrendering 
their houses and fields. In Cambridge, Lynn, and other towns he 
seized the commons, fenced them in, and leased them to private 
tenants. 

In order to prevent the public discussion of political matters, 
he prohibited all town meetings except one which might be held 
yearly to choose town officers. He forbade any person's leaving 
New England without a pass. The press had always been under 
the supervision of a keeper appointed by the General Court. The 
governor now appointed that keeper himself; nothing could be 
printed without a license. Andros was naturally arbitrary, but 
there seems to be no evidence that he was either " cruel, rapa- 
cious, or dishonest." It was simply inevitable that he should 
excite the hatred of those who were compelled to submit to him 
and to his royal master. 

When the news of the landing of William, Prince of Orange, 
was received (1689) in Boston, Andros wrote, "There is a gen- 
eral buzzing among the people, great with the expectation of 
[regaining] the old charter." The "buzzing" had a sting in it. 
It ended in the rising of the citizens. They threw the obnoxious 
ruler into prison and set up a temporary government of their 
own. Great was the joy of the colonists when William and Mary 
came to the throne in England. The new king was known to be 
in strong sympathy with the principles of the Puritan faith, and 
the citizens of Massachusetts believed that in him they would 
have a fast friend. 

The "glorious revolution of 1688 " which dethroned James II 
and gave the crown to William and Mary had far-reaching results 
in America: (i) it destroyed the scheme of consolidation of the 



1691-1692] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 91 

northern colonies begun by James (§ 64) and so secured to them 
a greater degree of independent action ; (2) it restored the old 
charters to Connecticut and Rhode Island (§§ 117, 125) and gave 
Massachusetts her charter rights again (§ 99), though in some- 
what smaller measure than before ; (3) it banished all fear of the 
establishment of Catholicism in any of the colonies, or of Episco- 
pacy in the Puritan colonies ; (4) it brought on the great war with 
France which ended by securing all French territory in America 
to England (§§ 162-172). 

10 1. The province charter of Massachusetts (1691) ; Salem 
witchcraft; Judge Sewall. King William (1691) granted a new 
charter ^ to Massachusetts which annexed Plymouth and Maine to 
the colony. It provided : (i) that the crown should appoint the 
governor of the colony ; (2) that the property holders among the 
people should elect an Assembly; (3) that the Assembly should 
choose a council or upper house, subject to the approval of the 
governor ; (4) the two houses of the Legislature were to make all 
laws, subject to the approval of the governor and of the king; 
(5) the Assembly was to levy all taxes ; (6) the Legislature estab- 
lished the courts of justice, and the governor, with the consent 
of his council, appointed the judges ; (7) freedom of worship was 
granted to all Christians except Catholics. The colony remained 
under this charter until the war for independence. 

The king now appointed Sir WilHam Phips governor. He 
arrived (1692) in the midst of the witchcraft excitement. 

Belief in the reality of witchcraft was then practically universal. 
In Great Britain alone thousands of poor old women were tor- 
tured, hanged,- and burned for that crime. The most eminent 
men " thought that they had Scripture authority for that belief, 
and knew that they had law for it." 

Some children in Salem formed a sort of club for reading stories 
about witches. They next began to mimic the actions of be- 
witched persons. At length they worked themselves into a state 
of nervous excitement bordering on insanity. In that condition 
1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 42. 



92 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1692-1696 

they accused several women of having bewitched them. One of 
the accused was a poor Indian servant ; she was flogged so cruelly 
that in her agony she confessed herself guilty. Then the whole 
community was seized with a frenzy of terror; before the fatal 
delusion ran its course nineteen persons were hanged for having 
sold themselves to Satan. 

But the inevitable reaction came. A day of fasting and prayer 
was held (1696) throughout Massachusetts to bewail the "mis- 
takes " of the witchcraft trials. Judge Samuel Sewall rose in his 
place in the Old South Meeting-house and read a written confes- 
sion of his error in having taken part in them. He ended by 
humbly begging the congregation to pray " that God might not 
visit his sin upon him, his family," or '* upon the land." 

Later, one of the girls who had begun the terrible work signed 
a written statement, still on record, in which she acknowledged 
the deceit she had employed, and which had cost near a score 
of lives. But though no more witchcraft cases came before the 
courts in Massachusetts, they continued to be prosecuted in the 
"old country." In fact, the English statute punishing such 
offenses with death was not repealed until forty years later (1736). 

102. The power of the purse; disputes with the governors; 
Episcopacy ; the Forest Laws ; the Navigation Laws revived. The 
new charter (§ 10 1) gave the Assembly the exclusive control of the 
public purse. The representatives chosen by the different towns 
levied all taxes and paid all salaries. This provision put " the 
effective whip of the money power " into the hands of the colonists 
and made them almost independent of the governor and the king. 

One great object of the governor was to secure a fixed perma- 
nent salary, so that the people could not put a bridle on his author- 
ity. The people, on the other hand, were fully resolved not to 
grant a fixed salary ; and not to grant any for more than a single 
year at a time. In this way they made the governor realize that 
his pay depended on his behavior. This battle between the execu- 
tive and the people was constantly going on, not only in Massa- 
chusetts, but in every one of the royal colonies in America. 



1691-1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 93 

Another lively source of irritation sprang from the fact that 
the governor, as the king's representative, always attended the 
king's or Episcopal Chapel in Boston. This excited the distrust of 
many of the descendants of the original Puritans. They feared 
that the king intended to appoint a bishop for Massachusetts and 
to secure to the Episcopal Church the controlling influence in 
religion. No bishop, however, was ever appointed by the crown 
for any American colony. 

The Forest Laws were a third cause of discontent. The tall 
straight pines of New England were reserved for masts for the 
royal navy. The new charter forbade the colonists to cut them 
down. But as a fine tree would readily sell for ^100, or even 
more, the king's surveyor found it difficult to save the pines. His 
attempts to do so sometimes led to pitched battles between his 
men and the colonists, in which the latter generally came off 
victors. 

Later, the royal authorities made determined efforts to enforce 
the obnoxious Navigation Acts (§ 48), which had long been a 
dead letter in New England. This added fresh fuel to the 
smoldering embers of discontent. Samuel Adams and other 
patriots blew those embers until they suddenly burst out in the 
fierce flame of the Revolution. 

103. Summary. Plymouth Colony (1620) and the colony of 
Massachusetts (1630) were established by men seeking liberty of 
worship for themselves, but for themselves only. The settlers 
of the first or " Old Colony " were Separatists or Pilgrims ; those 
of Massachusetts Bay were Puritans. The Pilgrims organized 
government by town meeting, where all met on terms of political 
equality. Later, they established the representative system (except 
for local affairs) and restricted the right to vote to persons of 
orthodox faith. After an independent existence of seventy years 
Plymouth Colony was united with Massachusetts. 

The Puritan settlers of Massachusetts practically set up an 
independent religious republic, based on church membership, 
and they endeavored to exclude all who did not accept their 



94 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1G23-1638 



faith ; on the other hand, they were the first English colonists to 
establish a college for higher education, and a system of public 
schools which laid the foundation of free instruction in the United 
States. In 1684 the colony was made a royal province. Later 
(1691), a new charter was received which remained in force until 
the outbreak of the Revolution. 



V. New Hampshire (1623)^ 

104. Grant of territory ; first settlements. Two years after 
the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
and Captain John Mason of England obtained a grant (1622) of 
the country between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers.^ 
Their territory extended " to the farthest head of the said rivers " 
and sixty miles inland. The new prov- 
ince was to receive the name of Maine. 
A few months later, David Thomson, 
a Scotchman, got possession of a small 
section of land on the Piscataqua and 
established a fishing station (1623) near 
the mouth of that river. He soon moved 
to the vicinity of Boston ; but the settle- 
ment he had formed on the Piscataqua 
seems to have been maintained. 

Several years later (1627), Edward 
Hilton came over from England and set 
up a second fishing station at what is now 
Dover. Not long afterward (1629), Gorges and Mason built a 
fort for carrying on the fur trade. The three founded Ports- 
mouth on one of the noblest harbors of the New England coast. 
When (1638) the Reverend John Wheelwright was banished from 
Massachusetts for heresy (§ 92) he began the settlement of Exeter. 

1 See Winsor's America, III, ch. ix; V, ch. ii; Thwaites' Colonies, ch. vi-vii ; 
Sanborn's New Hampshire ; Fisher's Colonial Era ; Macdonald's Select Charters, 
etc.; Bancroft's United States; Palfrey's New England. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 7. 




1629-1640] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 95 

105. Gorges and Mason divide their territory into Maine and 
New Hampshire. Gorges and Mason (i 629-1 634) divided their 
territory. Gorges took the part east of the Piscataqiia, or Maine, 
while Mason took that between the Piscataqua and the Merrimac.^ 
This region he called New Hampshire, — from the county of Hamp- 
shire, England, where he had once held an important office. 

An attempt had been made by Sir George Popham to establish 
a colony of that name at the mouth of the Kennebec in 1607, 
but it was unsuccessful. Maine was planted by small settle- 
ments, and hence presented only " scattered beginnings." The 
first permanent one was made (1625) on the rocky promontory 
of Pemaquid, east of Bath. It promised so well that it received 
the name of *' the metropolis of New England." 

Sir Ferdinando Cxorges was a stanch Royalist and a zealous 
member of the Church of England. He fixed his capital (1640) 
under the shadow of Mount Agamenticus, at what is now York. 
Massachusetts, under a new interpretation of her charter, claimed 
part of Maine. By a later charter (i 691) she got the whole of it, 
and held it'under the name of the "District of Maine." In 1820 
this "District" became an independent state of that union 
I which the hardy and patriotic sons of Maine had done their 
full part to establish. 

106. Religious opinions ; land titles. New Hampshire was greatly 
divided in religious opinions. A considerable part of the first set- 
tlers were " loyal to the Church of England and to the king." But 
besides these there were Puritans and Hutchinsonians (§ 92) at 
Dover. Again, the Wheelwright party (§ 92), who settled Exeter, 
felt no very fervent love toward the old Bay Colony, which had 
driven them out to find homes in the northern wilderness. 

Besides religious differences there were serious disputes about 
land titles, and between the two New Hampshire found herself 
in a very unsettled condition. When Mason died his heirs insisted 
that the settlers on the grant w^ere intruders who must either pay 
for their farms or leave them. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., Nos. 10 and 13. 



96 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1630-1675 

While this dispute was going on, Massachusetts (1630) laid 
claim to a large part of New Hampshire. Her ground was that 
the Massachusetts Company's charter gave them the right to all 
lands as far north as three miles above the source of the Mer- 
rimac River (§ 85 ), and thence easterly in a straight line to the 
Atlantic. 

After many years of Utigation the English courts finally (1680) 
decided against this claim; but the Mason heirs kept up the 
controversy for about half a century longer. The early settlers 
had a trying experience. When they were not fighting Indians 
in the forests they were fighting in the courts against English 
claimants to their homes ; of the two, they probably dreaded the 
claimants rather more than they did the savages. 

107. "Combinations"; union with Massachusetts (1642- 
1675) ; New Hampshire becomes a royal province. After Mason's 
death the citizens of Dover signed a compact by which they 
bound themselves to obey the laws of England, but maintained 
the right of the settlers to supplement those laws with regulations 
of their own. Similar " combinations " were formed (either earlier 
or later) by the people of Portsmouth and of Exeter. In prac- 
tice these agreements established independent systems of self- 
government. 

But New Hampshire had too small a population to hold her 
own against the terrors of Indian attacks, of boundary disputes, 
and of private claimants to her lands. A commissioner sent 
from Massachusetts reported that the Piscataqua people were 
ripe for union with the Bay Colony. The union took place in 
1 64 1. The northern colony lost none of its rights or privileges 
by the annexation. The General Court of Massachusetts pru- 
dently ordered (1642) that the freemen of New Hampshire 
should " have liberty ... to manage all their town affairs," and 
that permission should be given to each town to " send a deputy 
to the General Court though [such deputies] be not at present 
church members." ^ 

1 See Massachusetts Records, II, 29. 



1719-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 97 

This union lasted for more than thirty years (i 642-1 675), 
when the king ordered that New Hampshire should be restored 
to one of Mason's heirs. A few years later (1680), it became a 
royal province. Governor Cranfield's rapacity made the people 
desperate, and the farmers rose. Armed with clubs and aided 
by their good wives armed with kettles of boiling water, they 
drove back the governor's bands of tax collectors and constables. 

108. Settlement of Londonderry (17 19); manufacture of linen; 
Stark; Webster; Dartmouth College. Early in the eighteenth cen- 
tury (17 19) a number of Scotch-Irish (§ 52) immigrants settled 
in New Hampshire. They founded a frontier town, which they 
called Londonderry in grateful remembrance of the famous Prot- 
estant city which had been their temporary home in Ireland. 

These thrifty settlers soon began a most important industry 
which they had learned in- Ireland; this was the raising of flax 
and the manufacture of linen. In every log cabin the music of 
the spinning wheel was heard, and the cloth sent out from those 
humble homes in the wilderness became so famous all over New 
England that British makers counterfeited the Londonderry stamp. 

Another product of which the town had good reason to be 
proud was John Stark, who came to the front in the French and 
Indian wars and in the early battles of the Revolution. 

About forty years after the settlement of Londonderry a 
farmer of Scottish descent pushed far north into what was then 
the wildest part of New Hampshire. There he made himself a 
dwelling place under the shadow of Mount Kearsarge. Speaking 
of that home in the woods, Daniel Webster said : " My father 
lapped on a little beyond any other comer; and when he had 
built his log cabin, and lighted his fire, his smoke ascended nearer 
to the north star than that of any other of His Majesty's New 
England subjects ; his nearest civilized neighbor on the north 
was at Montreal." 

Something like ten years after that cabin was erected a band 
of about thirty students, mostly Indians, made their way on foot 
through the woods from Connecticut to what is now Hanover. 



98 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763- 

There they felled trees in the forest and erected (1769) the first 
rude buildings of Dartmouth College. 

109. Dispute between New York and New Hampshire ; the ' ' beech 
seal" ; Vermont ; Paul Jones. In 1 763 a dispute arose between New 
Hampshire and New York in regard to the ownership of the terri- 
•tory lying between the latter colony and the Connecticut River. 

Both claimed it under the royal grants. The colony of 
Massachusetts had built Fort Dummer (1724) near what is now 
Brattleboro. This was the first settlement made in that region. 
Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire (from whom 
Bennington was named) had already laid out nearly a hundred 
and forty townships in this disputed territory. These townships 
— popularly called the "New Hampshire Grants" — were a 
favorite field for speculators, and lawyers grew rich from land 
sales and the quarrels arising from them. 

The king (1765) confirmed the claim of New York to the 
territory west of the Connecticut River. Thereupon the gov- 
ernor of New York ordered the settlers on the " New Hampshire 
Grants " — later named Vermont — to repurchase their lands. 

Ethan Allen and Beth Warner, two " Green Mountain boys," 
headed a party determined to resist these demands. They armed 
themselves with tough blue-beech rods, such as were used for 
taming unruly oxen. When the sheriff's officers came from New 
York to eject -the settlers, the "boys" gave them a very warm 
reception. This they styled "applying the beech seal." A long 
and bloody contest would probably have ensued had not the 
breaking out of the Revolution compelled the disputants to turn 
their energies to fighting a common enemy. 

In the war for independence the " Green Mountain boys," led 
by Allen, Warner, and other patriots of that section, did the cause 
of American liberty memorable service. In 1777 the freemen of 
the " New Hampshire Grants " declared themselves an independ- 
ent state under the appropriate name of Vermont. Vermont 
(1791) headed the band -of states which, outside of the original 
thirteen, first entered the American Union. 



1634-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 99 

Early in the Revolution, citizens of Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, built (1777) the famous privateer Ranger which sailed 
under the command of Paul Jones. The Ranger ^^^.s the first ves- 
sel to hoist the stars and stripes, and the first to force a British 
man of war to strike her colors to our national flag. 

no. Summary. Early in the seventeenth century a few fishing 
and fur-trading settlements were planted on the New England 
coast north of the Merrimac. Soon afterward the proprietors 
of the territory divided it ; the eastern part became Maine and 
the western New Hampshire. Eventually New Hampshire was 
annexed to Massachusetts, but it retained important features of 
its own more liberal form of government ; late in the seventeenth 
century it became a royal province. 

Scotch-Irish immigrants set up the manufacture of linen at 
Londonderry. Stark and Webster were the sons of New Hamp- 
shire pioneers. After a time the settlers in the western part of 
the colony declared themselves an independent state under the 
name of Vermont. Both New Hampshire and Vermont took 
active part in the war for independence. 

VI. Connecticut (1634) ^ 

III. Connecticut Valley; the Dutch; emigration from Plymouth 
Colony and from Massachusetts. Between Plymouth Colony on 
the east and New Netherland on the west lay the beautiful val- 
ley of the Connecticut. James I had granted this region to the 
Plymouth Council ; but no proper surveys had been made, and 
" the king might as well have given a bearskin while the bear 
himself was still at large in the forest." 

The Dutch claimed the country by virtue of exploration and 
settlement. They had sent vessels up the Connecticut (1633) 
and had built a fortified fur- trading house where the city of 

1 See Winsor's America, III, ch. ix ; V, ch. ii ; Thwaites' Colonies, ch. vi-vii ; 
Fisher's Colonial Era; Bancroft's United States; Trumbull's Connecticut; John- 
ston's Connecticut ; Fiske's Beginnings of New England ; Palfrey's New England. 

LafO, 



lOO THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1634-I&i4 



Hartford now stands. But the Puritan and Pilgrim colonists on 
the east refused to recognize the Dutch claim. They looked 
upon the coveted territory as a " No Man's Land " or " Lord's 
Waste," which any Englishman had the right to seize. 

Acting in this spirit, Captain William Holmes of Plymouth 
sailed boldly up the Connecticut, pushed past the Dutch fort 
(1633), and set up a ready-made rival trading house where 
Windsor now stands. 

The next year (1634) emigrants from Watertown, near Boston, 
built a few log huts at Wethersfield, — the oldest town in Con- 
necticut. Soon afterward (1635) about half the inhabitants of 
Dorchester, Massachusetts, moved to the vicinity of Captain 
Holmes' trading house. They, too, had a " hankering mind " 
after the rich river meadows of Windsor. 

But the chief emigration took place the following year (1636), 
when the Reverend Thomas Hooker, " the Light of the Western 

Churches," led the 



Q Eoxburj D(\ohesier 

BrookHeld CT 





t^ Plymouth^ 

I 1 ^ 

idence^ip ^ 

&^t.Hope 7, 

SCALE OF MILES 



greater part of his 
Cambridge congre- 
gation to the Con- 
necticut. The col- 
onists found their 
way through the 
primeval forests by 
the use of the com- 
pass. After two 
weeks' journeying they reached the Connecticut, crossed it on 
rafts, and began the settlement of Hartford. 

The same autumn (1636) John Winthrop, junior, built a fort 
for Lords Say and Brooke at the mouth of the Connecticut — 
hence the town of Saybrook. This fort shut out the Dutch from 
coming up the river. Eight years later (1644), the Connecticut 
colony (consisting of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford) pur- 
chased Saybrook, and so got the control of the river from its 
mouth to the Massachusetts line on the north. 



1636-1637] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS lOI 

112. Opposition of Massachusetts; reasons for emigration. 

Massachusetts strongly opposed this movement of her people 
into the valley of the Connecticut. She regarded it as a seces- 
sion rather than an emigration. It was in fact the secession of 
the more democratic part of the Puritan population of Massachu- 
setts. But the authorities had other reasons for opposing this 
movement : (i) they did not like to see their own slender num- 
bers reduced ; (2) they feared that England would hold them 
responsible for letting the people take possession of a region for 
which they had no patent ; (3) they thought the movement would 
bring on a war with the Dutch and with the Indians.^ In regard 
to trouble with the savages, the results showed that their judg- 
ment was correct. 

The Cambridge emigrants gave as their reasons for going : 
( I ) that they needed more room for pasturing their cattle ; (2) that 
if they did not seize the Connecticut Valley there was great danger 
that the " Dutch, or other English " might do so ; (3) that it was 
" the strong bent of their spirits to remove thither." 

The phrase "strong bent" was doubtless a mild way of ex- 
pressing the determination of the leaders of the movement to 
establish a new government which should more fully represent 
their own ideas. Hooker was opposed to having suffrage restricted 
to church members (§ 88). He advocated broader and more tol- 
erant principles in both religion and politics than those held by 
the authorities in Massachusetts. 

After a long debate a reluctant kind of half assent was given 
to the emigration, but on the condition that Massachusetts 
should appoint commissioners to control the Connecticut set- 
tlers. To this the emigrants agreed, but in less than a year they 
had become self-governing. 

113. War with the Pequots ; the destruction of the Pequot 
fort ; results. The settlers at Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hart- 
ford had hardly got their log cabins completed when they w^ere 
obliged to unite in a campaign (1637) against the savages. It 

1 See Winthrop's New England, I, 166-169, or Walker's Life of Hooker, 84. 



102 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i637-i639 

was the first war with the Indians in New England. The fero- 
cious Pequots — a tribe that could muster nearly a thousand 
warriors — were determined to drive the Enghsh from the rich 
valley of the Connecticut. 

Captain John Mason of Windsor led (1637) his valiant Httle 
army of ninety men against the savages. Captain Underhill of 
Massachusetts joined him with a force of about twenty more. 
Several hundred friendly Narragansetts and Mohicans went with 
the expedition. 

Mason and Underhill, with this small force, burst into the Pequot 
fort (on Pequot Hill, near what is now Mystic). They set the wig- 
wams on fire, and in a few minutes the whole Indian village was a 
sheet of roaring flame. When the terrified savages rushed madly 
out of their blazing wigwams, Mason and Underhill " entertained 
them," as the latter says, " with the point of the sword." Out of 
six or seven hundred Pequots only " about seven escaped." 

The remainder of the tribe, who were intrenched in a second 
fort a few miles distant, fled westward in despair. AH summer 
they were hunted down like wild beasts. In the autumn (1637) 
the miserable remnant of this once powerful people surrendered. 
The colonists gave part of the prisoners to the Mohicans and 
Narragansetts ; the rest they sold as slaves to the West India 
planters. The destruction of the Pequots secured forty years of 
peace to the New England settlers, and opened the way to the 
rapid settlement of Connecticut. 

114. Mr. Hooker's sermon ; the Connecticut Constitution; laws 
respecting suffrage. In the spring following the victory over the 
Pequots, the Reverend Mr. Hooker preached a memorable ser- 
mon (1638) before the General Court of Connecticut. He 
declared that the foundation of every just government must be 
laid " in the free consent of the people," who alone had the right 
not only to choose but to limit the power of their rulers. 

The next January (1639) the Court framed a "Body of Fun- 
damental Laws " ^ based on the republican principles which 

1 See Macdonalcl's Select Charters, etc., No, 14. 



1638-1657] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 103 

Hooker had laid down. Such was the origin of the first writ- 
ten, and purely republican, constitution made by Americans for 
Americans (§§ 43, 80). It did not mention either king or par- 
liament, but derived its powers solely from the " free consent " 
of the governed. 

This constitution required that the governor of Connecticut 
should be ^' always a member of some approved congregation." 
That meant that he must be orthodox in religion. But the 
Connecticut authorities, unlike those in Massachusetts, did not 
restrict the right to vote to church members. 

A number of years later an act was passed (1657) forbidding 
Quakers and other "loathsome heretics" from settling in the 
colony. About the same time the right of suffrage was limited 
to persons who had once held office or who owned property to 
the value of ;^3o. 

The laws were liberal for that day. Roger WilHams was " a 
welcome guest at Hartford," and there "never existed a perse- 
cuting spirit in Connecticut." 

115. New Haven Colony (1638) a republic founded on the 
Bible ; the Laws of Moses. Meanwhile a new colony had been 
planted (1638) at New Haven. In many respects it differed 
widely from the Connecticut Colony. Its founders were The- 
ophilus Eaton, a London merchant, and the Reverend John 
Davenport, a Puritan minister of the " straitest sect." 

In 1639 the setders held their first town meeting. They voted : 
(i) " that the Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the 
direction and government of all men " ; (2) " that church 
members only shall be free burgesses." These ordinances were 
declared to be unalterable. In 1643 several independent settle- 
ments united with New Haven in forming a representative govern- 
ment on this basis.-^ 

The settlers then chose twelve men, who in turn chose, from 
among themselves, the " Seven Pillars." These seven, by mutual 
agreement, formed the first church of New Haven Colony, and 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 14, 



104 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1642-1G44 

also the first court of justice. They appomted the civil officers of 
the commonwealth and decided who might be permitted to vote. 

A few years later (1644), the General Court ordered that " the 
judicial Laws of Moses," as laid down in the Old Testament, 
should be the rule for dealing with all offenders. These laws, 
which resembled those of Massachusetts, inflicted the penalty 
of death not only on the murderer but on the presumptuous 
Sabbath breaker, the willful blasphemer, and the stubborn and 
rebellious son.^ All trials were conducted before the seven 
judges ; trial by jury was not allowed. There is no evidence, how- 
ever, that capital punishment was ever inflicted except for willful 
murder and for the commission of one or two revolting crimes.^ 
In England at this date no less than thirty offenses — of which 
sheep stealing was one — were punished by the hangman's halter. 

116. Establishment of a free school (1642) and of a college 
(1701); the regicides. In 1642 the colony of New Haven ordered 
a free school to be " set up" (§ 93), and to be supported out of 
the public money of the town. 

Two generations later, after New Haven and Connecticut had 
long been united, tradition tells us that ten ministers, zealous for 
the cause of sound knowledge and sound orthodoxy, met at Bran- 
ford, near New Haven (1701). Each brought a few books, say- 
ing, " I give these books for the founding of a college in this 
colony." Such was the humble beginning of what is to-day Yale 
University. It was the second in order of birth of the great New 
England institutions of learning. 

When Charles II came to the throne Whalley and Goffe, two 
of the judges who had signed Charles I's death warrant, fled to 
Boston. Thence the regicide judges went to New Haven. 

The Puritan colonists of New England naturally sympathized 
with men who had given the deathblow to that royal tyranny 
which had driven them to seek homes in the New World. The 
Reverend John Davenport concealed the fugitives in his own 

1 See New Haven Records, I, 130, 191 ; Levermore's New Haven. 151, 15^. 
8 3ee Levermore's New Haven, 153. 



iGGO-1637] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 105 

house. In a sermon full of fervor he bade his congregation obey 
the Scripture command, " Hide the outcasts ; betray not him that 
wandereth." The emissaries of the crown offered large rewards 
for the capture of the regicides, but no one, however poor, would 
give information respecting them. The king never succeeded in 
laying hand on these two men who had helped to send his father 
to the block, 

117. The Connecticut Charter (1662) ; New Haven united with 
Connecticut ; Andros and the Charter. In 1662 Charles II granted 
a charter ^ to the Connecticut Colony, which incorporated (1665) 
the New Haven Colony with the other settlement. The Con- 
necticut charter was a remarkable instrument. It made the 
people of that commonwealth " independent except in name." 
They could elect their own governor and Legislature, enact their 
own laws (provided they should not be contrary to the laws of 
England), and administer justice without appeal to the English 
courts. The charter imposed no restrictions in matters of religion 
or worship. 

It was as liberal in its gift of territory as in its political con- 
cessions. It secured to this virtual American republic a strip 
of land about seventy miles in width, extending from a point a 
little west of Narragansett Bay in one unbroken line across the 
continent to the Pacific. By these generous terms Connecticut 
embraced, like Virginia and Massachusetts, nearly one eighth of 
the circumference of the globe (see map on page 35). 

In 1687 Governor Andros, in pursuance of his instructions 
from James II (§§ 64, 100), demanded the surrender of the Con- 
necticut charter, and went with a military retinue to Hartford to 
obtain it. The authorities protested, but Andros was unyielding. 
He had come for the charter and he was determined not to go 
away without it. The discussion extended into the evening. 
Then, according to tradition, the much-coveted document was 
brought in and laid on the table. The governor was about to 
take possession of it when the candles were suddenly blown out ; 

I See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 24, 



I06 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1687-1689 

when they were relighted the charter had disappeared. One 
of the Assemblymen had seized the precious document under 
cover of the darkness, and rushing out had hidden it in the 
hollow trunk of the tree henceforth known and venerated as the 
" Charter Oak." 

Andros now took the management of Connecticut upon him- 
self. But his triumph was brief. When (1689) he fell (§ 100) 
the colonists brought out the hidden charter and reestablished 
their liberty. From that time the government remained substan- 
tially unchanged until the adoption of the state constitution 
in 1818. 

The growth of Connecticut, like that of her noble elms, was 
silent and sure. As she chose her own rulers and made her own 
laws, she was exempt from those quarrels with royal governors 
which kept most of the colonies in a constant turmoil. In the 
French wars Israel Putnam, one of Connecticut's adopted sons, 
— '' the man who dared to lead where any man dared to follow," 
— showed how her people were being trained for the coming 
struggle for independence. That struggle brought such patriots 
as Putnam, Roger Sherman, and Governor Jonathan Trumbull — 
the original '' Brother Jonathan," the friend and adviser of 
Washington — directly to the front. 

118. Summary. The Connecticut Valley was settled by emi- 
grants from Massachusetts who desired to estabhsh a colony on a 
broader basis of citizenship. Connecticut framed the first written 
and purely republican form of constitution made by Americans 
for Americans. Later, a colony of the strictest class of Puritans 
was estabhshed at New Haven. They limited the government 
to church members. In 1662 Charles II united the two colonies 
under a very liberal charter. Henceforth Connecticut became an 
independent republic in everything but name. Israel Putnam 
led Connecticut men in the French and Indian War ; and at 
the beginning of the Revolution, Putnam, Sherman, and Trumbull 
took a conspicuous part in behalf of independence. 



1629-1636] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS lO/ 

VIL Maryland (1634)^ 

119. George Calvert, Baron of Baltimore; the Maryland Charter; 
laws; religion. In 1629 George Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, 
visited Jamestown, Virginia, with the view of settling in that 
province. The authorities, knowing that he was a Catholic, 
demanded that he should take the Oath of Supremacy (§ 40), 
and thus compelled him to leave the colony. 

Two years later (1631), Charles I granted Lord Baltimore a 
large tract of wild land in Virginia north and east of the Potomac ; 
but before the charter was signed Lord Baltimore died, and his 
son, Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, received the 
charter.'"^ It created Calvert and his heirs " Proprietaries " or 
"true and absolute lords" of Maryland, — a name given by the 
king in honor of his French wife, Queen " Mary," who held 
the same faith as the Calverts. By this act Charles I granted 
" the most ample rights and privileges ever conferred by a sover- 
eign of England." He gave Lord Baltimore power to set up "a 
government almost independent of the parent country." 

By the charter the "Proprietary" could erect manors, create 
a titled aristocracy, wage war, call out the entire fighting popula- 
tion to defend his province, establish courts of justice, impose 
customs duties, levy taxes, and, with the assent of the freemen, 
or voters, could enact all needful laws — provided, however, that 
they should agree "as far as conveniently might be" with the 
laws of England. 

In pursuance of this plan. Lord Baltimore ordered (1636) that 
land grants of a thousand acres and upwards should be erected 
into manors. The lord of such an estate was empowered to hold 
civil and criminal courts. His tenants usually enjoyed a share in 
the management or government of the estate. One of the most 



1 See Winsor's America, III, ch. xiii ; V, ch. iv; and Thwaites' Colonies, ch. iv; 
Scharfs Maryland; Browne's Maryland; Fisher's Colonial Era; Macdonald's 
Select Charters, etc.; Hildreth's United States. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 12. 



io8 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1G34- 



famous of these manors, on which the ancient mansion, chapel, 
and outbuildings are still to be seen, was the beautiful domain of 
the Revolutionary patriot, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. 

Nothing in the charter forbade the Proprietary from opening 
such places of worship as he saw fit. Lord Baltimore's intention 
was to found an aristocratic province of wealthy landholders, which 
should also be a place of refuge for English Catholics. In doing 
this he had no intention of compelling all colonists to contribute 
toward the support of the Catholic Church, or of excluding any 
other class of Christians ; in fact, under English law he could not 
have shut out Protestants had he been so disposed. But he was 
not so disposed ; on the contrary, he invited them to take part in 
planting the first settlement in the American wilderness which 
was open to all believers in Christianity. 

120. Emigration to Maryland; St. Mary's (1634) first English 
Catholic Church; Puritans; toleration; Quakers. Leonard Cal- 
vert, a brother of Lord Baltimore, sailed (1633) for Maryland 
with nearly two hundred colonists. About 
twenty of them were Cathohc gentlemen 
who went out to take up lands ; most of 
the remainder appear to have been Prot- 
estant laborers. 

A settlement was made at St. Mary's in 
1634. Here an Indian wigwam was con- 
secrated as a place of worship. It was 
the first English Catholic church opened 
in America. No other colony would have allowed it to stand 
even for a day. Under English law no colony could have right- 
fully permitted it to do so (§ 40). Nothing in Lord Baltimore's 
charter granted him permission to open such a church ; but it 
seems to have been implied or understood. 

From the outset Protestants and Catholics enjoyed equal and 
entire freedom. Puritans from New England were invited to 
settle in the new colony. Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts 
wrote (1643) that Lord Baltimore, "being himself a Papist," 




1648-1672] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 109 

offered " land in Maryland to any of ours that would transport 
themselves thither, with free liberty of religion." 

When Governor Berkeley of Virginia drove out the Puritans 
from the "Old Dominion," a number fled to Maryland (1648- 
1649) and, like Roger Williams, founded a town which they 
named Providence, — now Annapolis. In 1649 ^^e Maryland 
Assembly, a majority of whom were Catholics, passed an " Act 
concerning Religion"^ which confirmed and fully established 
Lord Baltimore's policy of religious toleration. That act pun- 
ished denial of the Trinity with death ; but it declared that " no 
person . . . professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall from hence- 
forth be any w^ays troubled ... in respect of his or her religion 
... so as they be not unfaithful to the Lord Proprietary." 

Certain Quakers were banished for refusing to take the oath 
of allegiance to Lord Baltimore ; but even they were not very 
rigidly excluded, for George Fox later (1672) declared that he 
held "a large and heavenly meeting" in Maryland. 

121. The Virginians; Clayborne ; Captain Ingle; the Puritan 
commissioners ; Cromwell ; William and Mary. The Virginia colo- 
nists, angry at the dismemberment of their territory (§ 119), 
showed decided hostility to their new neighbors. William Clay- 
borne, a Virginian, held a trading station on Kent Island, under 
a royal license granted before Lord Baltimore received his char- 
ter. He refused to vacate ; fighting ensued. Finally the case 
was brought before the English courts and was decided in Lord 
Baltimore's favor. When the Civil War broke out in England 
between the Puritans and the Royalists, Clayborne made an 
attempt to repossess himself of Kent Island. 

At the same time Captain Richard Ingle, an English pirati- 
cal adventurer who professed to be a stanch Puritan, seized 
St. Mary's and compelled Governor Calvert to fly to Virginia. 
Under the plea that he had come to help " the distressed Prot- 
estants " of the colony, Clayborne plundered the Catholics and 
the Royalists, broke up the Catholic missions, and arresting Father 
1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 21. 



no THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1G54-1689 

White and the other priests, sent them to England in irons to 
answer to a false charge of treason. 

After a time Governor Calvert returned to Maryland, but there 
was a great outcry in England against what was called the " Papist 
province." To take away all cause for this clamor. Lord Balti- 
more removed the Catholic governor, put a Protestant in his 
place, and gave the control to that party. 

After Charles I was beheaded. Parliament appointed three 
commissioners, one of whom was Clayborne, to reorganize the 
government of Maryland. Three fourths of the colonists were 
Puritans. They supported Clayborne in his avowed determina- 
tion to '' root out the Papists." An Assembly was summoned 
from which all Catholics were expressly excluded. That body 
enacted a law (1654) declaring ''that none who profess and 
exercise the Popish religion . . . can be protected in this prov- 
ince by the laws of England." The extreme Puritans in England 
said that at last " Babylon in Maryland " had fallen. The same 
law that refused liberty of worship to Catholics denied it to 
Episcopalians, Quakers, and Baptists. 

Cromwell, Puritan though he was, sternly rebuked this action. 
He declared that " liberty of conscience is a natural right." 
Furthermore, he gave orders that Lord Baltimore's authority 
should be respected and that freedom of worship should be 
restored to all Christians. 

When William and Mary came to the throne (1689), they were 
not at once proclaimed sovereigns in Maryland. John Coode 
spread the report that the delay was the result of a plot on the 
part of the Catholics and the Indians to " cut off the Protestants " 
of the colony. The story was absurd on its face, for the Prot- 
estants greatly outnumbered the Catholics and could easily have 
crushed any attack. But the report led to an insurrection, and 
the colony of Maryland was split into two hostile parties, one 
crying out against the "villainous practices" of "the late Popish 
governors," the other denouncing " the wicked instigation of 
John Coode." 



1692-1729] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS HI 

122 . Maryland becomes a royal province ; the Church of England ; 
the Catholics ; Lord Baltimore ; the Revolution ; Articles of Confed- 
eration. In consequence of this turmoil the king decided (1692) 
to take the government of Maryland into his own hands, and the 
Assembly established the Church of England in the colony. Puri- 
tans and Catholics were now alike forced to contribute money for 
its support, and Catholics were forbidden to hold public worship. 
Later (17 16), the introduction of the Test Act (§ 174) had the 
effect of prohibiting Catholics from holding any office under 
the government. Henceforth until the Revolution, despite the 
sturdy protest of such patriots as Charles Carroll, citizens of that 
faith " were taxed to sustain a religion which they believed hereti- 
cal, and a government in which they had no share." 

Meanwhile the Baltimores had become Protestants, and Mary- 
land was restored (1715) to Charles Calvert, the fifth Lord Bal- 
timore. He was a member of the Church of England, and he and 
his descendants held the province until the war for independence. 
In 1729 the great tobacco planters on the Patapsco founded the 
city of Baltimore, as a port from which to ship that staple. In 
the outset of the Revolution the Maryland colonists burned the 
taxed tea that was shipped to Annapolis, and sent sharpshooters 
to aid the Continental army in besieging the British force shut up 
in Boston. 

123. Summary. The colony of Maryland was established by 
Lord Baltimore (1634) mainly as a refuge for English Catholics. 
Liberty of worship was guaranteed to all Christians. Maryland 
became involved in a dispute with Virginia in regard to the 
possession of Kent Island. The republican party in England 
appointed Clayborne with other commissioners to reorganize 
the government of Maryland. The commissioners summoned an 
Assembly made up of Puritan settlers, who refused to protect 
Catholics, and prohibited freedom of worship to any but those 
of their own faith. In 1692 Maryland became a royal province, 
and the Church of England was made the established form of 
worship. 



1 12 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1G3G- 



Later, when the Baltimores had become Protestants, the gov- 
ernment was restored to them, and remained in their hands 
until the outbreak of the Revolution. 

VIII. Rhode Island (1636)^ 



124. Roger Williams founds Providence; the "lively experi- 
ment." In the spring of 1636 Roger Williams (§ 91), with a few 
friends, formed a settlement at the head of Narragansett Bay. 
In commemoration of the many mercies he had received from 
the Most High, he called the place Providence. " I desired," 

he says, " it might be for a shelter for 
persons distressed for conscience." 

In the colony of Providence abso- 
lute religious liberty was guaranteed 
to all. It was, as Roger Williams said, 
"a lively experiment," — one that 
had never been made before. Early 
in the preceding century (15 15) Sir 
Thomas More in his romance of 
Utopia had dared to hint at such 




toleration in England. The idea was regarded as an excellent jest. 
Well-nigh fifty years later (i 5 61) L'Hopital, Chancellor of France,^ 
likewise pleaded, but without success, for freedom of worship. 
Lord Baltimore (1634) granted it in Maryland, but confined it to 
trinitarian Christians (§ 120). In Rhode Island (1636) Roger 
Williams, casting all limitations aside, welcomed men not only of 
every faith, — Jew, Christian, or pagan, — but men of no faith, to 
the enjovment of what he called "soul liberty." ^ Complete reli- 
gious toleration had its origin in America. Later, Williams (1654) 
explained how this "soul liberty" was to be made consistent 



1 See Winsor's America, III, ch. ix ; V, ch. ii ; and Thwaites' Colonies, ch. vi-vii; 
Arnold's Rhode Island ; Fisher's Colonial Era ; Macdonald's Select Charters, etc. 

2 See the Leading Facts of French History, in this series, 134. 

8 See Arnold's Rhode Island, I, 126; Roger Williams' Letters, 278. 



1639-1657] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 1 13 

with the maintenance of order. He compared the colony to the 
passengers in a ship. No one, said he, must " be forced to come 
to the ship's prayers"; but on the other hand no mutiny can 
be permitted, and no man's religious belief can be allowed to 
"disturb the civil peace." ^ 

A striking illustration of the practical working of such broad 
toleration occurred a few years later. The commissioners of the 
New England Confederacy (1657) requested Governor Arnold of 
Rhode Island to exclude Quakers as a " common pest." The 
governor replied that they had no law to punish them. He 
added ironically that the Rhode Island colonists had found by 
experience that where Quakers were " suffered to declare them- 
selves freely . . . [there] they least of all desire to come." ^ 

Several Baptists had already emigrated from Massachusetts 
to Providence. Williams gave them a hearty welcome, and 
united with them in forming (1639) the first Baptist Church in 
America. He soon withdrew from it and became what was 
then called a "Seeker," or independent inquirer. Eventually he 
came to the conclusion that Christianity is only another name 
for humanity. 

125. Government of the colony ; charter of the colony. The 
government of the colony was a democracy limited to the heads 
of families. Unmarried men could not vote, but must bind them- 
selves to obey the laws. Later (1640), five men called "Dis- 
posers " were chosen to manage affairs, but their action might 
be modified or set aside in town meeting. 

Subsequently suffrage was restricted to owners of real estate, 
and no one could become a citizen until he had resided in the 
colony for some time. 

In 1643 Williams secured a patent^ of incorporation for the 
"Providence Plantations." The patent made no grant of land, 
but it gave the colonists power to govern themselves provided 
they enacted no laws contrary to those of England. 

1 See Rhode Island Records, I. 376. 2 Ibid. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc, No. 18. 



114 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i663- 

Twenty years later (1663), a royal charter^ was obtained which 
confirmed all the privileges granted by the first instrument, and 
which expressly provided that no one should be " in any wise 
molested ... for any difference in opinion in matters of religion." 
This charter was so broad and liberal that it virtually made Rhode 
Island a " little republic." When the colony threw off the power 
of the crown in 1776, the clause in the charter requiring alle- 
giance to the king was struck out, and one was substituted requir- 
ing allegiance to the colony ; with this single change it then stood 
until 1842. 

126. Limitation of suffrage versus religious toleration ; Brown 
University. But, on paper at least, a very decided limitation of 
suffrage had taken place. In the statutes of Rhode Island of 
1 719 a law which claims to have dated from 1664 provided that 
"all men professing Christianity," Roman Catholics excepted, 
should be admitted to vote. There appears to be no evidence 
that this law was ever enforced ; but it was five times formally 
reenacted, and it remained on the statute book until the close of 
the Revolution (1783).^ 

Unquestionably this act was a departure from the privileges 
guaranteed by Roger Williams. It restricted political liberty for 
a religious reason. It imposed a serious political disability on 
both Catholics and Jews ; nevertheless it did not directly assail 
the great principle of freedom of worship. 

Under this law any one might settle in the colony, but not 
every one could legally obtain the full rights of citizenship. 
Rhode Island still continued to be a refuge for men of all creeds 
and of no creed ; and it was humorously said that if any man 
had lost his religion he would be sure to find it somewhere in 
the " Providence Plantations." Perhaps, after all, it was a good 
thing that there was one corner in America where a man could 
find the religion he sought, and having found it could practice 
it in his own way without molestation. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 27. 

2 See Arnold's Rhode Island, II, 490, 494 ; Winsor's America, III, 379, 



17G4-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 1 15 

This principle found expression in the establishment by the 
Baptists (1764) of Rhode Island College, now Brown University. 
The charter of that noble institution of learning expressly forbids 
the use of religious tests, and requires that not only Baptists but 
Quakers, Episcopalians, and Congregational ists shall be included 
in the board of trustees. 

Eventually this broad principle of toleration obtained national 
expression in the first amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States. Whether the "soul liberty" enjoyed in Rhode 
Island suggested that amendment or not, it at least established a 
precedent for it. 

127. Independent spirit of Rhode Island; resistance to Great 
Britain. It was inevitable that a colony which excluded no one 
should be at times tumultuous in its exercise of individual liberty. 
It was natural, too, that Massachusetts should be strongly preju- 
diced against a commonwealth established on principles of reli- 
gious toleration by a man she had driven out. 

This feeling of personal independence, though at times pushed 
to extremes, did good service in the end. Governor Shirley of 
Massachusetts (1754) denounced it as the "spirit of mobbism." 
But later that spirit struck the keynote of the highest patriotism 
in its resistance to arbitrary rule. 

When (1764) England by the passage of the Sugar Act^ revived 
her restrictions on trade with the French and Spanish West Indies 
(§ 177) and thus threatened the commercial ruin of both Rhode 
Island and Massachusetts, Stephen Hopkins, the Quaker governor 
of Rhode Island, came out in vigorous defense of the American 
colonies. With unmistakable emphasis he declared that " the Par- 
liament of Great Britain had no more right to make laws for the 
Rhode Islanders than they had to make them for the Mohawks.' ' In 
that spirit the sons of Rhode Island, led by General Greene, fought 
in the Revolution which established our national independence. 

128. Summary. Roger Williams planted the colony of Rhode 
Island on the basis of absolute religious freedom for all men. He 

J See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 56. 



Il6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1638-I6&i 

obtained a patent which virtually gave the colony the power of 
self-government. After a time the right of suffrage was legally 
restricted to Protestants, but there was no interference with 
liberty of worship. From the outset the spirit of the colonists 
w^as vigorously independent, and manifested itself most effectively 
in the War of the Revolution. 



IX. New Sweden or Delaware (1638)^ 

129. First settlement on the Delaware ; Christina. The Dutch 
made a settlement on the Delaware (1631), but it was soon 
destroyed by the Indians. A number of years later, Sweden 
resolved to get a share of the American continent, and to build 
up a " New Sweden," which should rival 
Holland's "New Netherland " and Brit- 
ain's '' New England." 

The Swedish government engaged ex- 
Governor Peter Minuit (§ 56) to take over 
a party of emigrants. They made a settle- 
ment (1638) on the western bank of the 
Delaware within what are now the city lim- 
its of Wilmington. The emigrants named 
this settlement Christina, in honor of the young queen of Sweden. 
It was the first permanent colony established in the Delaware 
Valley. The Dutch, however, had no idea of permitting the 
Swedes to get a foothold on territory which they claimed as their 
own. Governor Stuyvesant sailed with an expedition from New 
Amsterdam and compelled (1655) the fort at Christina to surrender. 
The Dutch gave the Swedish colonists permission to remain in the 
country, and pledged themselves not to interfere with their free- 
dom of worship. When the English captured (§62) New Nether- 
land (1664) this southern territory on the Delaware became part 
of the possessions of James, Duke of York. 

1 See Winsor's America, IV, ch. ix ; III, xii ; V, ch. iii ; and Thwaites' Colonies, 
ch. ix: Fisher's Colonial Period; Scharf's Delaware: Hildreth's United States. 




I 



1680-] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 117 

130. William Penn purchases Delaware; its government; 
Delaware becomes independent ; enters the Union. After William 
Penn obtained (1680) his grant of Pennsylvania he was anxious 
to secure a frontage on the Atlantic. In order to accomplish 
this he purchased (1682) the region then called the "Three 
Counties upon the Delaware " from the Duke of York. 

Penn annexed these three counties to his province and named 
them the ''Territories of Pennsylvania"; they were governed as 
part of that province until 1701. The people of the "Territo- 
ries " then succeeded in getting a charter from Penn under which 
they established a legislature of their own. 

That charter followed the "Frame of Government" of Penn- 
sylvania and was equally liberal in its terms. It granted: (i) 
freedom of worship to all who believed in " One Almighty 
God"; (2) no one could be required to contribute toward the 
support of any form of religion to which he conscientiously 
objected ; (3) all persons who professed belief in Jesus Christ, 
and who solemnly promised allegiance to the king and fidelity to 
the Proprietor and to the governor of Pennsylvania were eligible 
to office.^ 

In 1776 the inhabitants of the "Territories of Pennsylvania" 
declared themselves an independent state. They took the name 
of Delaware from that of the river forming their northeast bound- 
ary. In the battles of the Revolution no regiment fought more 
bravely than that popularly known as the " Blue Hen's Chickens," 
or the " Gamecocks of Delaware." The state, by a prompt, unani- 
mous, and' enthusiastic vote, was the first in order of time to 
accept the Constitution and to enter the new American Union so 
established. 

131. Summary. Delaware was originally settled (1638) by 
the Swedes at Christina (now Wilmington), but the Dutch from 
New Netherland soon got possession of the province. After the 
conquest of New Netherland by the English, Delaware was pur- 
chased from the Duke of York by William Penn, who annexed it 

1 See Poore's Constitutions and Charters, I, 270. 



ennsyuUnia 



IlS THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I66a-1665 

to his province of Pennsylvania. Eventually the people of Dela- 
ware obtained a charter from Penn and established a Legislature 
of their own. In 1776 they declared themselves independent of 
Great Britain and took an active part in the Revolution. Dela- 
ware was the first state to accept the Constitution and to enter 
the American Union. 

X-XI. North and South Carolina (1663) ^ 

132. Charles II grants "Carolina"; settlements in that region. 
Charles I by his grant of Maryland (1632) had greatly reduced 
the area of Virginia on the north ; his son 
Charles II cut off a still larger slice from 
the original territory of the " Old Domin- 
ion." In 1662 that lavish monarch issued 
a charter^ to Lord Clarendon and seven 
other court favorites, giving them all the 
region along the coast between Albemarle 
Sound and the St. John's River of Florida. 
Westward the tract extended to the Pa- 
cific. The king named the province Caro- 
lina in honor of himself. Two years later 
(1665), Charles extended this grant half 
a degree farther north, and, in open defi- 
ance of the claims of Spain, pushed the boundary on the south 
until it not only included the ancient Spanish city of St. Augustine 
(§23) but overlapped it by nearly seventy miles. 

The Proprietors of this vast province received large discretion- 
ary executive power. They might make all needful laws, provided 
they received " the approbation " of a majority of the freemen of 
the colony. They might also grant such religious liberty as they 
thought " fit and reasonable." 




St Augustine 1665 



1 See Winsor's America, V, ch. v; Thwaites' Colonies, ch. iv; Fisher's Colonial 
Era; McCrady's South Carolina; Macdonalcl's Select Charters, etc. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 26. 



1653-1672] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 119 

Emigrants from Virginia had already moved into this country 
and settled (1653) on the Chowan River, or Albemarle district. 
Later (1665), Englishmen coming from the Barbadoes formed 
a settlement at Cape Fear, or the Clarendon district. When 
George Fox (§ 95) pushed his way south across the Great 
Dismal Swamp (1672) and entered Carolina he received a warm 
welcome from certain Quakers who had fled there and had built 
colonies on the Chowan River. 

133. The '' Grand Model " ; provisions respecting society, laws, 
religion. The Proprietors of Carolina adopted (1669) a cumbrous 
and complex constitution,^ popularly known as the " Grand 
Model." It was to stand " forever" and could not be amended 
or altered. The " Grand Model " was mainly the work of the 
eminent English philosopher John Locke. Feudalism had died 
a natural death in England, but Locke proposed to resurrect it, 
and transplant it in a modified form to the pine forests of the 
New World. 

The avowed object of the " Grand Model " was to " avoid 
erecting a numerous democracy," — or to grant as little power to 
the people as possible. It aimed to build up a political and 
social p3Tamid. The base was formed of negro slaves, subject 
in all respects to the " absolute power " of their masters. Next 
above the negroes came the white agricultural laborers. They were 
serfs of the soil ; they had no right to vote, or even to leave the 
estate on which they worked, without permission of the owners. 
In that condition they and their children were to remain " to all 
generations." Above these serfs came a class of well-to-do but 
untitled landholders who had the right to vote and a voice in 
legislation. 

Above this class w^as the nobility, holding vast estates, descend- 
ing from father to son forever. Finally, a corporation of eight 
wealthy and titled Proprietors crowned all. The eldest Proprietor 
represented the king; the whole proprietary body was "self- 
renewing and immortal." 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 33. 



120 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1698-1729 

134. Mode of legislation; religious toleration; the colony be- 
comes a royal province. All laws were to be made by a Parlia- 
ment consisting of the '' Proprietors (or their deputies), together 
with the nobility and a small proportion of the untitled land- 
holders." The Proprietors could veto the laws enacted by this 
Parliament, and so control the government. 

With respect to religion the *' Grand Model " provided that 
all persons who acknowledged " that there is a God " and admitted 
the rightfulness of taking oaths should have freedom of w^orship. 
Those who denied the existence of God could neither vote nor 
hold real estate. Persons above the age of seventeen, not mem- 
bers of some religious society, could not claim the protection 
of the laws. Finally, the Church of England and " it alone " 
was to be maintained in Carolina by public taxation, — other 
churches must support themselves. The above provisions ex- 
cluded Quakers, since they refused to take an oath, but did not 
shut out Jews or Catholics. 

The Proprietors, after more than twenty years of vain struggle, 
gave up the attempt (1698) to enforce this peculiar constitution. 
In 1720 the colony became a royal province, and the crown 
divided it (1729) into North and South Carolina. Under the 
royal government religious liberty was granted to all Christians 
except Catholics. 

135. Settlement of Charleston ; Huguenot emigrants ; cultivation 
of rice and indigo. In 1670 British emigrants settled on the west 
bank of the Ashley River. Two years later (1672), they founded 
the city of Charleston. The same year slaves were brought into 
the colony from the Barbadoes. They increased until they out- 
numbered the white population. 

In order to escape the merciless persecution of Louis XIV 
numbers of Huguenots (§22) fled to America, and many came to 
Charleston. These religious refugees represented in large degree 
not only the bone and sinew but the brain and conscience of 
France. From them sprang such patriots as Henry Laurens and 
Francis Marion, while from Huguenot settlers in other colonies 



I 



1694-1742] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 121 

came John Sevier, Peter Faneuil, John Bayard, James Bowdoin, 
Paul Revere, Elias Boudinot, and John Jay. 

For many years the chief exports from the Carolinas were 
derived mainly from the pine forests or from traffic with the 
Indians. These exports consisted largely of turpentine, tar, 
pitch, and rosin, or of furs and deerskins. A bag of seed rice, 
obtained (1694) by chance from the captain of a vessel that put 
in at Charleston, led to the cultivation of that valuable grain. 
In time it became the principal article of export from South 
Carolina. Its production created a great demand for negroes, 
and planters reaped rich harvests from the swamp lands along 
the coast. Had the white settlers attempted the cultivation of 
those lands under the fierce rays of a southern sun, they would 
have simply " dug their own graves." 

Nearly half a century after the introduction of rice culture, 
the daughter of a planter near Charleston obtained (1742) some 
indigo seed from the West Indies and succeeded in making it 
grow. Indigo raising rapidly extended. Before the outbreak 
of the war for independence the yearly export of this prod- 
uct exceeded a million pounds, and it often proved immensely 
profitable. 

136. Indian wars ; Governor Tryon. The progress of North 
Carolina was greatly retarded by wars (1711-1713) with the for- 
midable Tuscarora Indians, who, according to tradition, were an 
offshoot of the ferocious Iroquois of New York. By the help of 
South Carolina and Virginia the power of the TusQaroras was 
(17 13) completely broken. The greater part of the tribe emi- 
grated north and joined the Iroquois confederacy — hereafter 
known as the Six Nations. 

But, though small in numbers, the North Carolinians were 
made of resolute stuff; as they fought the savages, so in a differ- 
ent way they fought against the exactions of the royal governors. 
When they demanded taxes, the people replied by demanding 
better government. The watchword of these sturdy backwoods- 
men was " No reforms, no money." 



122 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1771 



Finally, the extortions of Governor Tryon — nicknamed the 
" Great Wolf of North Carolina " — drove the back-country colo- 
nists into open revolt. They organized bands of " Regulators," 
who not only refused to pay oppressive fees and taxes, but 
flogged the lawyers and shut up the courts. 

137. Battle of Alamance; Spotswood, Robertson, and Sevier; the 
Stamp-Act Congress. Tryon attacked a body of the patriots who 
had gathered near the Alamance River (177 1) in western North 
Carolina. The governor had a much superior force, and so 
gained the day. He hanged seven prisoners as "rebels" and 




Map of Settlement of Tennessee and Kentucky 

" traitors." They died as bravely as they had fought. The 
battle of Alamance struck a blow at unjust taxation and spilt 
blood that prophesied the Revolution. 

More than half a century before (17 16), Governor Spotswood 
of Virginia (§ 51) climbed the Blue Ridge, and, looking down 
into the great valley of the West, drank the health of George I 
in brimming tumblers of punch. The Virginia governor, how- 
ever, did not venture beyond the Shenandoah Valley ; but after 
the battle of Alamance, James Robertson of North Carolina led 
(17 71) a band of emigrants into that western country. They 
resolved to move into the remote wilderness out of Tryon' s reach. 



1765-1771] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 123 

After a long and difficult journey over the mountains they settled 
on the Wautauga River. There John Sevier of Virginia joined 
Robertson (1772) ; these two pioneers, one of Scotch, the other 
of Huguenot descent (§ 135), laid the foundation of the state of 
Tennessee. 

James Harrod (1774) led a band of pioneers into the valley 
of the Kentucky. Soon afterward Daniel Boone, the famous 
hunter, who had long been exploring " the land of promise " west 
of the mountains, settled Boonesboro (1775) in the same valley. 
Such was the beginning of the state of Kentucky. These resolute 
men pushed the frontiers of the colonies beyond the Alleghenies, 
and laid the foundation of the future greatness of the American 
Republic. 

But before this opening of " the West," or what was called 
''the West" at that day, occurred, the citizens of Charleston 
(1765) publicly burned the obnoxious Stamp Act. A little later, 
Christopher Gadsden, a " born republican," with his brother 
patriot John Rutledge, met the delegates from the united colo- 
nies in New York at that memorable Stamp-Act Congress (1765), 
which has been called the '' Day Star of American Liberty." 

138. Summary. By a sea-to-sea charter Charles II granted 
Carolina (1663) to Lord Clarendon and a number of associates. 
An attempt was made to govern the colony under a constitution 
called the '' Grand Model," but the people demanded a voice in 
the government ; the constitution was cast aside, and the colony 
became a royal province, which was soon afterward divided into 
North and South Carolina. A settlement had been made at 
Charleston which attracted many Huguenot emigrants. The 
introduction of slavery made the cultivation of rice and indigo 
very profitable in South Carolina, while the northern province 
engaged largely in the export of the productions of the pine 
forests and of furs. 

The resistance of the settlers of North Carolina to the oppres- 
sive measures of Governor Tryon led to the battle of Alamance, 
— a forerunner of the Revolution. Shortly afterward, emigrants 



24 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1G81 



from the Carolinas settled the Kentucky and the Tennessee 
country. It was the first decided movement of English colonists 
toward taking possession of the West. 

Gadsden and Rutledge of South Carolina took a prominent 
part in the Stamp-Act Congress, which asserted the principles 
of American liberty. 



XII. Pennsylvania (i68i)^ 

139. Grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn; Penn's object; 
provisions of the charter. William Penn, one of the most influential 
of the English Quakers, inherited from his father, Admiral Penn, 
a claim against the crown for ^16,000. 
Charles II discharged the debt by issuing 
(1681) a charter ^ granting his creditor an 
immense tract of land bordering on the 
western bank of the Delaware and extend- 
ing five degrees into the interior. Out of 
respect to the memory of Penn's father, 
the king named the new province Penn- 
sylvania or Penn's Woods. 

Penn's object was to make what he 
called a "holy experiment"; in other 
words, to found a commonwealth in Amer- 
ica where all Christians might dwell to- 
gether on the broad basis of the Golden Rule. Such toleration 
did not exist in the old country. Those who did not uphold 
the established form of worship were' regarded as virtually 
disloyal. Penn declared that according to the current of thought 
then prevailing in Great Britain, " No churchman meant no 
EngHshman, and no conformist meant no subject." In despair 

1 See Winsor's America, III, ch. xii ; V, ch. iii ; and Thwaites' Colonies, ch. ix ; 
Sharpless' Quaker Government in Pennsylvania; Fisher's Colonial Era; Macdon- 
ald's Select Charters, etc. ; Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania ; Fisher's Making of 
Pennsylvania; Fisher's Pennsylvania. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 38. 




1681] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 125 

of obtaining religious liberty at home, he now turned to the 
New World. 

The charter made him (i) the "true and absolute Proprie- 
tary" (or Proprietor) of Pennsylvania, which was to include three 
degrees of latitude by five degrees of longitude west from the 
Delaware ; (2) acting with the freemen of the colony, he had 
power to make all needful laws, provided they were not repug- 
nant to the laws of England ; all legislation was subject to the 
king's veto ; (3) the Church of England might be established in 
the colony, but no restrictions were to be imposed on other forms 
of Christian worship ; (4) the Proprietor had the sole power to 
erect courts and appoint judges for the colony ; (5) it was expressly 
provided that the English Parliament should have the right to 
levy not only customs duties but taxes on the people of Pennsyl- 
vania. This last provision had never before been inserted in 
any colonial charter. For nearly a hundred years it remained as 
harmless as a sheathed sword, then out of it suddenly sprang the 
war for independence. 

140. Emigration to Pennsylvania (1681); Penn's Constitution 
or "Frame of Government." Penn at once (1681) sent over 
several hundred emigrants to Pennsylvania. They formed, he 
declared, *' the seed of the nation." He said to them, "You 
shall be governed by laws of your own making." All settlers 
could buy land at the rate of forty shillings a hundred acres, 
but on each lot they were required to pay to the Proprietor of 
Pennsylvania a perpetual annual rent of one shilling. This 
trifling rent became the cause of most vexatious disputes. 

While in England (1681) Penn drew up a "Frame of Gov- 
ernment" ^ in which he carefully limited his own power and that 
of the Proprietors who should succeed him. He imposed these 
checks in order "that the will of one man" might "not hinder 
the good of a whole country." " Liberty without obedience," said 
he, " is confusion," but " obedience without liberty is slavery." 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 40. This first constitution or " Frame 
of Government" was followed by three others in 1683, 1696, and 1701. 



126 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1682 

To this constitution forty "fundamental laws " ^ were appended 
which received the assent of Penn and the emigrants. One of 
the most important of these laws was that which forbade that any 
child should be brought up in idleness, and required every one 
to learn some useful trade. 

In 1682 Penn himself sailed for Pennsylvania, taking with 
him about a hundred emigrants, " mostly English Quakers." He 
landed at Newcastle, on the Delaware, and there took formal 
possession of his province. 

141. The ''Great Law"; Philadelphia founded (1682); treaty 
with the Indians. At Chester, Penn summoned an Assembly of 
the people. Together the Proprietor and the Assembly enacted 
(1682) the "Great Law," ^ whigh provided that "God" might 
"have his due, Caesar his due, and the people their due." 

The most important points in this code were : (i) the right 
to vote for members of the Assembly was restricted to men of 
good character who held the Christian faith and were taxpayers ; 
(2) only those who professed Christianity could hold office or sit 
in the Legislature (but later, Catholics (§ 179) were debarred from 
voting or holding office) ; (3) every colonist might demand trial by 
jury ; willful murder, but willful murder only, was punishable by 
death ; the prisons were not to be places of punishment only, but 
schools of industry and of reformation ; (4) the laws of the colony 
were to be printed and taught to all children ; (5) " no person " 
who should confess "Almighty God to be the creator, upholder, 
and ruler of the world" should "in any wise be molested" or 
"compelled to frequent or maintain any rehgious worship"; but 
all persons were required to keep the Lord's day sacred. 

Later in that year (1682), Philadelphia was founded. Its 
scriptural name gave fit expression to Penn's spirit of brotherly 
love. Shortly afterward he met the Indians in solemn council, 
under the spreading branches of a huge elm. The ferocious 
Iroquois despised the less warlike Delawares whom they had con- 
quered. Tradition declares that the Proprietor of Pennsylvania 
1 See Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, 56S. 2 Ibid.; 619. 



1682-1688] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 12/ 

concluded a famous treaty ^ with the Delawares which secured 
the unbroken friendship of that peaceable tribe of red men for 
more than sixty years, or as long as the Quakers held control of 
the province. So completely did the founder of the colony gain 
the confidence of the natives by his fair dealing, that the highest 
praise a Delaware Indian could give a white man was to say, 
" He is like William Penn." 

142. Disputes in the colony; growth of Philadelphia; first 
printing press. Penn had no sooner returned to England (1684) 
than quarrels broke out between the settlers and the deputy 
governor. From that time forward there was little peace in the 
colony. One chief ground of dispute was the claim of the 
Assembly to limit the governor's expenditure of money to cer- 
tain objects. 

But notwithstanding these stormy political discussions the new 
colony prospered in a very remarkable degree. In the short 
space of fourteen years from its foundation, Philadelphia was 
described as a ''noble and beautiful city" of "above two thou- 
sand houses," and the capital of a province having more than 
twenty thousand inhabitants. 

It could also boast of the first permanent printing press set up 
south of New England (1686). On that press, which Benjamin 
Franklin may have worked later, William Bradford printed the 
attacks of the political disputants of his day. It was a w^ar of 
pamphlets, making up in vehemence what they lacked in size. 

143. Quaker remonstrance against slavery (1688) ; iron and 
coal mines opened. Nothing, however, which Bradford sent out 
from his press had such deep meaning as a petition addressed 
to the Friends' Yearly Meeting (1688) by the German Quakers 
of Germantown. That paper, \vhich seems never to have been 
printed, voiced the first organized movement in the colonies 
against slavery, for negro bondage had already been introduced 
into Pennsylvania. The petition asked, '•^Have these poor fiegers 
7iot as much right to fight for their freedo?n, as you have to keep 

1 Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, 634. 



128 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1688-1755 

the?n slaves .? " ^ This protest was the forerunner of a movement 
which, three generations later (1776), had a practical issue. On 
the eve of the Declaration of Independence the Quakers of Penn- 
sylvania commanded all members of the Society of Friends in 
that state to free their slaves. A few years later (1780), the state 
passed an act — the first on record — which provided for the 
gradual emancipation of that species of human property which 
Penn himself had once seen no harm in holding. 

Meanwhile the people of Pennsylvania had discovered one of 
the greatest sources of their future wealth. They had opened 
iron mines' (17 20), had set up an iron furnace, and later (1755) 
had exported a considerable quantity of that "metal to England. 
Toward the close of the eighteenth century (1791) anthracite 
coal was accidentally discovered at Mauch Chunk Mountain. 
The use of this coal for fuel and for iron manufacturing led to 
the development of the two leading industries of the state. 

144. The Quakers and the French and Indian wars ; a struggle 
for life ; dispute with the English Proprietaries of the colony. 
Until the outbreak of the French and Indian wars (1750) the his- 
tory of Pennsylvania was comparatively uneventful. The Quakers 
were nonresistants, and though a part of them justified purely 
defensive war, others felt that they could not conscientiously aid 
in equipping troops to fight the invaders. This reluctance led, a 
few years later (1756), to their ceasing to exercise political power 
in the colony. 

After Braddock's defeat (1755) (§ 168) the Pennsylvanians 
found .themselves engaged in a fierce struggle for life. The knife 
of the savage was at their throats and the settlers on the western 
frontier were flying in despair. The hostility of the Indians was 
doubtless due in some measure to the notorious " Walking Pur- 
chase " fraud (1737) by which certain greedy and unscrupulous 
white men swindled them out of a very large tract of land in the 
" Forks of the Delaware." " But the people rose to meet the 

1 See Hart's American History by Contemporaries, H, No. 102. 

2 See Fisher's Pennsylvania, Colony and Commonwealth, 114. 



1755-1757] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 129 

emergency ; they girded themselves for battle, and volunteers 
rushed forward. The war spirit was stimulated to the highest 
degree by the offer of a bounty of $130 for every Indian scalp 
brought in. 

But the English Proprietors of Pennsylvania who had succeeded 
Penn showed little interest in the welfare or safety of the colony. 
Their object was to get all the revenue they could out of it, and 
to spend nothing for it. They owned tracts of land in the prov- 
ince valued at ;^ 10,000,000, but they refused to pay a single 
penny in taxes on this vast property. On the other hand, they 
insisted that the colonists should raise troops at their own expense 
to defend the interests of the province and at the same time to 
protect the untaxed real estate of the Proprietors residing three 
thousand miles away. 

The Assembly indignantly refused to shed the blood of the peo- 
ple of Pennsylvania for the sake of the English owners. They 
sent Benjamin Franklin (1757) to London to protest against the 
selfish greed of the Proprietors and to demand that they should 
bear their share of the burdens of the colonial government. 
Franklin succeeded, after a long and vexatious contest, in getting 
an order from the authorities in England commanding that the 
surveyed lands belonging to the Proprietors should be taxed in 
future. Henceforth the successors of the illustrious founder of 
Pennsylvania could no longer boast that their possessions in 
America w^ere exempt from public charges, yet were protected 
at public cost. 

145. Settlement of the boundary question ; "Mason and Dixon's 
Line" ; services of Dickinson, Franklin, and Morris. Later, another 
serious controversy was satisfactorily concluded. Ever since the 
settlement of Philadelphia the question of the southern boundary 
line of the colony had been a matter of dispute between Penn 
and Lord Baltimore and their successors. Penn's charter fixed 
that boundary at the fortieth degree of north latitude, but it was 
found that this parallel not only ran north of Philadelphia, but 
that it wholly shut out Pennsylvania and Delaware from any part 



I30 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1703- 

of Delaware Bay. The intent of the charter was clearly to secure 
to Penn a certain amount of seacoast, hence a new survey was 
demanded. 

This was finally made (i 763-1 767) by Mason and Dixon, two 
skilled English surveyors. They fixed the southern boundary at 
39° 43'. When practicable, milestones were set up along this 
parallel for the whole distance of 280 miles. On every fifth 
stone the arms of the Penn family were carved on the northern 
side and those of the Baltimores on the southern side. '* Mason 
and Dixon's Line" was destined to have pohtical significance, for 
it came to be regarded as the dividing mark, east of the Ohio 
River, between the free and the slave states. 

But a far greater struggle was now at hand. George III 
asserted the right of the crown to tax the colonists without ask- 
ing their consent. John Dickinson protested in his " Farmer's 
Letters." The progress of the Revolution soon kindled the whole 
thirteen colonies into a blaze. The three most eminent citizens 
of Pennsylvania — Franklin, Dickinson, and Robert Morris — met 
on the floor of the first Continental Congress assembled at Phila- 
delphia (1776). Franklin served on the committee which drafted 
the Declaration of Independence. At the same time Dickinson 
drew up the Articles of Confederation, — the first Constitution 
of the United States. Morris later devised methods for finding 
means to carry on the war. Thus in a high political and finan- 
cial as well as in a purely geographical sense, Pennsylvania proved 
herself the Keystone State of the Union. 

146. Summary. The colony of Pennsylvania was founded by 
William Penn as a refuge for the persecuted brethren of his 
faith. The corner stone of his new American commonwealth 
was the Golden Rule. Religious toleration was granted to all 
who believed in God as the creator and ruler of the world. 
The right to vote and to hold office was originally granted to 
those who professed the Christian faith, but later it was withheld 
from Catholics. The Pennsylvanians, notwithstanding their dis- 
putes with the governors of the colony, prospered in a remarkable 



17.32-1733] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEiMENTS 131 

degree. The Quakers organized the first general movement 
against slavery, and the Keystone State was the first to pass an act 
of emancipation. Three of its leading citizens, FrankHn, Morris, 
and Dickinson, took a very prominent part in the movement 
which secured our national independence. 



XIII. Georgia (1733)^ 

147. Oglethorpe and associates found Georgia; their objects; 
the charter. Of the thirteen colonies none had a nobler origin 
than Georgia, the last of the series. In answer to a petition 
made by the soldier and 
philanthropist James Ogle- 
thorpe and others, George 
II granted (1732) to him 
and his associates a charter ^ 
for a tract of land for 
twenty-one years, in the 
southern part of South Caro- 
hna (§ 132). The tract 
embraced the country bor- 
dering on the Atlantic 
between " the most north- 
ern part" of the Savannah 
and *' the most southern 

stream" of the Altamaha rivers; "westerly" it extended "from 
the heads of the said rivers " to the " South Seas " or the Pacific. 

Oglethorpe had three chief objects in view : (i) to give the 
worthy and honest poor of England — especially those confined 
in debtors' prisons — an opportunity to begin life anew under 
more favorable circumstances than the Old World could offer 
them , (2) to furnish a refuge to the persecuted Protestants of 



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1 See Winsor's America, V, ch. vi ; Thwaites' Colonies, ch- xlii ; Fisher's Colonial 
Era ; Jones' Georgia ; Macdonald's Select Charters. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 49. 



132 THE STUDEiNT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1733- 

southern Europe; (3) to protect the Carolinians against the 
attacks of the Spaniards of Florida by building up a settlement 
on the southern frontier. 

The new colony was named Georgia in honor of the king. 
The Company, with Oglethorpe as its head, was to hold the 
region " in trust for the poor." They had full power to make 
needful laws, subject of course to the king's approval. The char- 
ter granted freedom of worship to all persons except Catholics. 
For ten years every settler was to have an allotment of land 
free of rent ; after that time he was to pay fourpence annually 
for every hundred acres. All estates were to descend in the 
male Hne from father to son. This provision caused much dis- 
satisfaction to those who had no children but daughters, and the 
law was soon modified (1739) so that women could inherit land. 

148. Vexatious regulations ; slavery excluded ; the production 
of silk. The weak part of Oglethorpe's philanthropic scheme 
was that it treated the settlers of Georgia not as men but as 
children. The colonists had no votes and no voice in the govern- 
ment. Furthermore, for nearly twenty years they could obtain 
no clear title to land. But these were not the only regulations 
which irritated the emigrants. In England distilled liquors had 
recently supplanted beer to a great extent and had caused a 
decided increase in drunkenness. The trustees of Georgia deter- 
mined to banish intemperance from their model commonwealth 
in the wilderness. For this reason they " absolutely prohibited " 
the importation of alcoholic spirits into the province. This pro- 
hibition cut off the people from trading with the West Indies, 
one of whose chief exports was rum, and so retarded the growth 
of Georgia. 

The trustees also forbade the colonists to hold slaves, though 
every other American colony held them. Oglethorpe declared 
that slavery was " a horrid crime " contrary to " the gospel " and 
to " the fundamental law of England." Political and prudential 
reasons also influenced the trustees. They wished to make the 
colonists self-supporting; they believed that slave labor would 



1733-1736] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 133 

create habits of idleness on the part of the large planters, while 
the poor whites would starve because unable to compete with the 
blacks. Furthermore, the trustees thought that nothing but a 
compact white population could serve as a barrier against the 
invasions of the savages and the Spaniards ; hence they did not 
object to the importation of white servants whose services were 
sold for a term of years (§ 44). 

It was confidently expected that by white labor alone the 
colony would become a great silk-producing settlement. Mul- 
berry trees, the leaves of which are the natural food of the silk- 
worm, grew wild in that region. The work of raising and caring 
for the worms was so easy that much of it could be left to the 
women and children. Oglethorpe thought that " forty or fifty 
thousand persons " might be employed in this way. 

The colonial seal adopted by the trustees was symbolical not 
only of this industry but of the unselfish motives of the founders of 
the province. On it was represented a group of silkworms spin- 
ning their cocoons, while underneath was the appropriate motto, 
Non sibi, sed aliis, — " Not for themselves, but for others." 

149. Settlement of Savannah (1733) ; the Salzburgers ; Scotch 
Highlanders. With these shining prospects before him, Oglethorpe 
set sail in 1733 with a company of " sober, industrious, and moral 
persons " to take possession of the " Promised Land." A settle- 
ment was made on a high bluff on the Savannah River. There 
a city named from the river was laid out. The site was admirably 
chosen, and Savannah is to-day one of the largest cotton-exporting 
ports in the United States. 

The year following the settlement, a band of German Prot- 
estants who had been driven out of Salzburg, Austria, by religious 
persecution arrived (1734) at Savannah. They established them- 
selves about thirty miles north of that town, at a place which they, 
like the Israelites of old, named Ebenezer, or " Stone of Help." 
More such refugees soon followed. 

Later (1736), the trustees sent over a number of Scotch High- 
landers to protect the southern frontier. The Scotchmen erected 



134 'iHE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [mG-i747 

a fort on the Altamaha and another at Frederica at the mouth of 
the river, to repel Spanish invasion. 

The next year the fur- trading post of Augusta was estabhshed 
on the upper waters of the Savannah River. It became an 
important and highly profitable center of traffic with the Indian 
tribes west of the mountains. From this point at a later period 
two thousand pack-horse loads of valuable skins worth about 
^50,000 were annually sent to Europe. 

150. The Wesley s ; Whitefield and slavery. Among those who 
early came to Savannah were John and Charles Wesley. John 
came to do missionary work; his brother Charles acted as sec- 
retary to Oglethorpe. John Wesley, though just beginning his 
career, was a preacher of great power. " I went to America," 
said he, " to convert the Indians ; but oh ! " he added, '' who 
shall convert me?" Out of that strong religious conviction 
sprang the Methodist Church, which he organized in England, — 
a Church destined to do much toward shaping the history of that 
country and of our own. 

The Wesleys were followed by that noted Methodist revivalist, 
the Reverend George Whitefield, whose impassioned appeals 
not even the imperturbable Franklin could entirely withstand. 
Whitefield came to Georgia to found an orphan asylum near 
Savannah. In order to get more money for its support, he 
purchased a plantation (1747) in South Carolina, stocked it 
with slaves, and gave the products and profits to his " House of 
Mercy." 

John Wesley, who later (1772) denounced slavery as the " sum 
of all villanies," had not then taken any open stand against it. 
Whitefield was outspoken in its favor. He declared that Georgia 
would never flourish *' without negroes are allowed." To grant 
the settlers land, said he, yet refuse them slaves to work it, is 
like tying the colonists' legs and then ordering them to walk. 
Whitefield had a large number of the people on his side. The 
attempts to produce silk had ended in failure, and the settlers 
implored the trustees to permit them to buy negroes. 



1740-1751] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 135 

151. The introduction of negroes and the importation of rum. 

Finally, some of the colonists succeeded in hiring negroes from 
the planters in South Carolina. They got them at first for short 
periods, but later hired them for life. The trustees saw that 
slavery in one form or another was certain to creep in, and they 
at length (1749) reluctantly gave their consent to its open and 
legal introduction. 

They also conceded the importation and sale of rum, a liquor 
which had long been smuggled into the colony. The establish- 
ment of slavery led to the formation of large plantations for rais- 
ing rice and other products suited to the soil. This change in 
the labor system placed Georgia on an industrial equality with 
South Carolina, and the free importation of rum from the West 
Indies gradually gave rise to a prosperous trade with those islands. 

152. Oglethorpe and the Spaniards. The colony, feeble as it 
was in numbers, served as an effectual barrier against the encroach- 
ments of the Spaniards. Oglethorpe had strengthened the south- 
ern frontier with forts, and had secured the friendship of several 
Indian tribes. In 1740 he led an expedition against the Spanish 
settlement at St. Augustine (§ 23). In retaliation the Spaniards 
(1742) besieged Frederica (§ 149) ; but the fort held out against 
the attack. 

General Oglethorpe had valiantly defended the colony, but the 
settlers were greatly dissatisfied with the government by the 
trustees, and were constantly sending complaints to London. 
The general went to England and refuted these charges. He 
never returned to the colony, and the trustees appointed a presi- 
dent and council of four to administer the affairs of the province, 
but the discontent remained unabated. The people of Georgia 
felt able to take care of their own interests and were weary of the 
paternal government by which those in authority kept them in 
leading-strings. 

In 1 75 I the trustees surrendered their charter to the crown. 
They had found that the profit did not equal the expense, and they 
gladly gave up their well-meant but badly managed experiment. 



136 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1752- 

153. Georgia becomes a royal province; American rights. By 

the surrender of the charter Georgia now (1752) became a royal 
province, and so continued until the Revolution. This was a 
decided change for the better, since, as in the other royal prov- 
inces, an Assembly was created and the people thus obtained a 
voice in the government. Even then, after twenty years' exist- 
ence, the colony had gained so little in numbers that the entire 
population, including slaves, was estimated at less than five 
thousand. 

At the opening of the war for independence the patriot party 
in Georgia took a firm stand for "American rights." When the 
port of Boston was closed as a punishment for the destruction of 
the taxed tea, the people of Georgia generously sent nea,rly six 
hundred barrels of rice to feed the suffering poor of the Massa- 
chusetts capital. After the battles of Lexington and Concord, 
the citizens of Savannah seized a quantity of the king's powder 
which was stored there. Part of it they retained for themselves ; 
tradition says that they sent the remainder to the Continental 
army at Cambridge. It arrived in season for effectual use at the 
battle of Bunker Hill. 

General Oglethorpe must have heard of these proceedings with 
no small interest. He lived to see Georgia take its place among 
the United States, and to see England sign a treaty of peace 
recognizing the independence of the American nation. 

154. Summary, Georgia, the last of the thirteen colonies, was 
founded (1733) for purposes of charity and as a refuge for the 
oppressed Protestants of Germany. For a time its growth was 
hampered by vexatious regulations and by laws restricting trade 
and excluding slavery. In 1752 Georgia became a royal province, 
and the people through their Assembly obtained a voice in the 
government. At the beginning of the Revolution the patriot party 
in Georgia took an active part in aiding Massachusetts and in 
furnishing powder for the Continental army. 



1615-1625] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 137 

Exploration of the Mississippi Valley ^ 

155. The French in the "West; the French and the Indians; 
Catholic missions. While the English colonists were getting pos- 
session of the strip of Atlantic coast east of the Alleghenies, the 
French in Canada were rapidly pushing westward. 

The fact that powerful Indian tribes held that unknown region 
greatly facilitated the progress of the French. Champlain, the 
*' Father of New France," first conceived the idea of acquiring 
possession of the western country by conciliating the natives. 
With the exception of his fatal mistake of entering into an alliance 
with the Canadian Indians against the Iroquois of New York, he 
was successful in his plans. The English did not understand the 
Indian character ; the French endeavored to adapt themselves to 
the red man's ways, and so won his lasting friendship. This they 
could do the more readily as their purpose at the outset was not, 
like that of the English, to plant colonies, but to establish fur- 
trading posts, which, of course, did not interfere with the Indian's 
control of the forest. 

Champlain induced a number of Franciscan friars to come over 
as missionaries (16 15) and begin the work of converting the sav- 
ages. He meant to save the heathen, and at the same time save 
the cause of France in the New ^^'orld. 

Taking his life in his hands, one of these gray-robed friars leav- 
ing Quebec (1615) resolutely turned his face toward the west and 
struck out into the pathless wilderness. He reached Lake Huron, 
and there set up his altar in an Indian wigwam on the shore of 
Thunder Bay. 

Ten years later (1625), the Jesuit fathers in France came over 
to help the Franciscans. The Jesuits infused new life into the 
undertaking. Cardinal Richelieu, then the power behind the 
throne, was determined that no emigrants but French Catholics 

1 See Winsor's America, IV, ch. v-vii ; Winsor's Cartier to Frontenac ; Winsor's 
Mississippi Basin; Thwaites' Colonies, ch. xii ; Parkman's La Salle; Sloane's 
French War and the Revolution. 



138 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1625-I673 

should land in Canada. The Jesuits, in full accord with this 
spirit, resolved to win over the entire native population of New 
France to the faith they preached. 

These " peaceful soldiers of the cross " braved hunger, cold, 
torture, and death. Long before William Penn's band of colonists 
had built the first log cabin on the banks of the Delaware, the 
French priests, or " Black Gowns," as the Indians called them, 
had planted missions at Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie, Green Bay, 
and at Kaskaskia on the Illinois. They were the first white men 
to discover the salt springs of Onondaga, New York, and the 
copper mines of Lake Superior. They, too, first described and 
mapped out the upper Great Lakes and the streams flowing into 
them. 

156. Joliet and Marquette discover the Mississippi (1673). The 
Indians told the Jesuits that there was an immense river in the 
West which flowed southward to an unknown distance. When 
Count Frontenac (§ 66) became governor of Canada (1672), he 
sent Johet, a noted fur trader, accompanied by Father Marquette, 
to discover the river. The French hoped that it emptied into 
the Gulf of Cahfornia and that it would open the long-sought 
way across the continent to the Pacific. 

Starting from the Straits of Mackinaw (1673), Marquette and 
Joliet paddled their birch-bark canoes to Green Bay. From that 
point they laboriously pushed their way up the rapids of the Fox 
River, — ''a way," said the good father, "as hard as the path to 
heaven." Leaving the head w^aters of the Fox, they carried their 
canoes across the country a short distance and embarked on the 
\A'isconsin. For a week they floated down with the current, until 
on a beautiful day in June, says Marquette, " we safely entered 
the Mississippi with a joy that I cannot express." 

157. Voyage down the Mississippi and return. Down that 
great river they glided day after day. They passed the mouth 
of the Illinois, the castellated rocks, the painted limestone cliffs, 
and the roaring flood of the muddy Missouri. Still keeping on, 
Marquette and Joliet reached the mouth of the placid Ohio, and 




The French in the West 
139 



140 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1673-1680 

two days later passed the point where De Soto (§ 20) had crossed 
the Mississippi more than a hundred and thirty years before. 
Thence moving southward in the shadow of forests of cotton- 
wood, magnolia, and cypress, they came to the mouth of the 
Arkansas. There the natives warned them that they would en- 
counter hostile tribes, and perhaps Spaniards, if they ventured 
farther down the stream. 

The explorers resolved to go back and report what they had 
seen. Under the fierce rays of a July sun they began the ex- 
hausting toil of pushing their canoes northward against the power- 
ful current. In time they reached the Illinois, and, crossing over 
from a tributary of that stream to the Chicago River, they entered 
the waters of Lake Michigan where the greatest city of the North- 
west now stands. 

158. La Salle's expedition to the Illinois country (i 679-1680). 
Six years later (1679), La Salle, the commander of Fort Fronte- 
nac (now Kingston), set out to secure possession of the Mississippi 
to France and to open up trade with Mexico. He made his way 
to the Niagara River. There, a short distance above the Falls, he 
built the Griffin, the first vessel ever launched on the waters of 
the upper Great Lakes. 

La Salle with his little party, among whom was Father Henne- 
pin, a Franciscan friar, sailed (1679) to Green Bay. At Green 
Bay he loaded the Gj^ffin with furs and sent the vessel back to 
Niagara with orders to obtain a cargo of supplies and return to 
him at the Chicago River or vicinity. The vessel was never again 
heard of. La Salle then embarked with his men in a fleet of 
canoes for the St. Joseph River on the east side of the lake. At 
that point (1679) the commander constructed Fort Miami. He 
then ascended the St. Joseph, and, crossing over the portage to 
the head waters of the Kankakee River, descended that stream, 
entered the Illinois, and kept on until (1680) he reached Peoria 
Lake. There he constructed Fort Crevecoeur. This fort marks 
the first attempt made by white men to take permanent posses- 
sion of what is now the state of Illinois. 



1680-1682] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 141 

La Salle spent the winter (i 679-1 680) at the fort anxiously 
hoping for news of the arrival of the Griffin with provisions and 
supphes, which would enable him to complete a small vessel in 
which he purposed descending the Mississippi. Weary of wait- 
ing, La Salle at length resolved to go back to Fort Frontenac 
and get the things he needed. Leaving a small garrison to hold 
Fort Crevecoeur, he set out on the first of March (1680), accom- 
panied by five of his followers, on his perilous journey of a 
thousand miles. 

159. Father Hennepin's journey; La Salle explores the lower 
Mississippi and takes possession of Louisiana (1682) ; his death. 
Shortly before La Salle left Fort Crevecoeur he sent Father 
Hennepin (§ 158) to explore the lower Illinois. Hennepin went 
down that river to its mouth and then turned northward up 
the Mississippi. After many adventures among the Indians he 
passed the site where the flourishing city of St. Paul now stands, 
and reached (1680) a cataract which he named the Falls of 
St. Anthony; to-day those falls furnish the magnificent water 
power of Minneapolis, the largest flour-manufacturing center 
in the world. 

When the French commander returned to the Illinois he found 
F'ort Crevecoeur deserted. A band of Iroquois warriors ha^ de- 
stroyed it. He was forced to turn back and seek shelter (1680) 
in Fort Miami (§158). 

Subseqiienlly La Salle, with a strong party, started (1681) for the 
third time to explore the Mississippi. Late in the season they 
left Fort Miami and crossed Lake Michigan to the Chicago River. 
Following the frozen Illinois, they reached open water just below 
Lake Peoria. There they embarked in their canoes, and in Feb- 
ruary (1682) entered the Mississippi. Early in April the French 
came in sight of the gleaming waves of the Gulf of Mexico. ^ 

There, amid volleys of musketry and shouts of " Long live the 
king ! " La Salle planted a wooden column bearing the arms of 
France at one of the mouths of the " Great River of the West." 
Then, in the name of Louis XIV of France, he took formal 



142 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1682-1717 

possession of the Mississippi from its source to the sea, and of all 
the country watered by it and by its tributaries. This immense 
territory, stretching from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains, La Salle named 
Louisiana in honor of the reigning French sovereign. France 
gained all this magnificent empire more than thirty years before 
the English had ventured as far west as the Blue Ridge (§ 137). 

But the Mississippi empties into a sea which Spain claimed as 
her own, and she threatened death to all foreigners who should 
enter it. La Salle resolved to brave that decree, to fortify the 
mouth of the river, and to hold the great valley of the West 
against the world. The hand of an assassin (1687) put a stop 
to the execution of his plan. 

160. Iberville's settlement; Mobile founded (1702); the Mis- 
sissippi Company; New Orleans founded (171 8). A number of 
years later, Iberville, a French-Canadian explorer, built a fort at 
Biloxi on the Gulf of Mexico (1699) ; he thus began the first 
European occupation of what is now the state of Mississippi. 

A company of French Protestants begged Louis XIV to grant 
them permission to emigrate to Louisiana. They received this 
answer : " The king has not driven Protestants from France to 
make^a republic of them in America." The Biloxi colonists did 
not succeed, and were transferred (1702) to Mobile; there they 
laid the foundation of a settlement which eventually became the 
state of Alabama. 

A number of years later, reports reached Paris that a French- 
man had found enormous deposits of gold in the Illinois country. 
John Law, a clever Scotch financier who was doing business in 
the French capital, got himself appointed (17 17) president of a 
grand stock company to work these gold mines and develop the 
resources of Louisiana. Law proposed to pay off the French 
national debt of $500,000,000 out of the profits of this gigantic 
undertaking. All Paris was seized with a mad fever of specula- 
tion. When the bubble burst thousands of Frenchmen cursed 
the day when they first heard the name of Louisiana. But Law's 




SOUTH 
AMERICA 



The Louisiana Country claimed by La Salle for France 



'43 



144 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1689-1720 

scheme had one good result: Bienville, a brother of Iberville, 
had been appointed commander general of Louisiana, and in 
1 718 he made a clearing in the canebrakes on the east bank of 
the Mississippi and there founded the city of New Orleans. 

Henceforth New Orleans controlled the mouth of the river. 
That immense stream, with its tributaries, drains the largest agri- 
cultural valley on the globe, having an area greater than that of 
central Europe, and capable of producing grain enough to feed 
all the inhabitants of Europe and America. 

161. The French in the north and the west; French forts. 
The French had also been active at the north ; late in the 
seventeenth century (1695) they settled Kaskaskia, in Illinois. 
Captain Duluth had built a fort on the northern shore of Lake 
Superior, had "visited the spot where the city since named for 
him stands," and had explored much farther west. He advised 
building a fort on the straits connecting Lake Erie with Lake 
Huron. The French acted on that suggestion and founded (i 701) 
the fortified post of Detroit. A little later (1702), they built a 
fort at Vincennes, the oldest town in Indiana. 

In 1720 the French built Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi, in 
southern Illinois. It was one of the most formidable strongholds 
on the continent and formed one more link in that chain of forti- 
fications which Louis XIV was extending from Quebec to New 
Orleans. By means of those forts France intended to make good 
her claim to the country west of the Alleghenies when the great 
final struggle for the mastery should come with the English. 

162. War between the French and the English; Frontenac's 
plans ; attacks on Schenectady and Haverhill ; the English colonists 
attack Canada. The war (known as King William's War) had, 
in fact, already begun in the Old World between England and 
France (§ 100), and Frontenac (§ 66) simply opened the American 
side (i 689-1 697) of the terrible contest. It was a struggle for 
religious as well as for political supremacy, and Catholics and 
Protestants were arrayed against each other. Frontenac intended 
to seize New York and drive the inhabitants into the wilderness. 



1G90-1713] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 145 

This plan failed, but he sent a party of French and Indians (1690), 
who fell upon the little Dutch settlement of Schenectady and 
destroyed it. They also burned the hamlet of Haverhill in Mas- 
sachusetts and made the mistake of carrying off Mrs. Hannah 
Dustin. She managed to kill her captors while they slept, and 
proved, by the bundle of Indian scalps which she took home, that 
she could beat the savages at their own game. 

At the suggestion of Jacob Leisler, governor of New York 
(§ 67), an attack on Canada was planned. Sir William Phips of 
Maine took the French fort at Port Royal, Acadia (now Nova 
Scotia), and stripped the place bare, bringing away even the 
governor's silver spoons and his new dress wigs. 

In a later expedition against Quebec Phips was repulsed, and 
the "pinch of famine" forced a disastrous retreat. His men 
clamored for their pay, and Massachusetts, having no coin to 
give them, issued her first paper money (^40,000) in order to 
setde the demand. That colony had now to shoulder the burden 
of a heavy debt, with nothing to pay it but paper currency, 
which soon fell to half its face value. 

163. Queen Anne's War ; Indian attacks ; Port Royal, Quebec ; 
King George's War ; Louisburg taken. In the second or Queen 
Anne's War (1702-17 13) the French and Indians swept the 
coast of Maine from Casco to Wells. The next winter they 
burned Deerfield, Massachusetts, and carried away most of the 
inhabitants into captivity. On the other hand, an expedition 
sailed from Boston (17 10) and took permanent possession of 
Port Royal, which was henceforth called Annapolis in honor of 
the reigning queen of England. 

The next summer (17 n) a combined force of English troops 
and colonists was sent against Quebec. Eight ships of the squad- 
ron were wrecked in the St. Lawrence, and nearly nine hundred 
men were lost. A council of war voted not to proceed farther. 
When peace was made (17 13) Great Britain kept Annapolis, 
obtained full possession of Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland, and 
Acadia, which now received the name of Nova Scotia. 



146 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1744-I7i34 

The third or King George's War (i 744-1 748) was marked 
by a splendid victory. The French fortress of Louisburg on Cape 
Breton Island guarded the entrance to the St. Lawrence. Colonel 
William Pepperrell of Maine led (1745) a secret expedition against 
this stronghold, which, with its walls of solid masonry twenty feet 
high, seemed to defy attack. 

New England, New York, and Pennsylvania contributed men, 
artillery, and provisions for the expedition. Aided by a small 
EngHsh fleet, the little army of fishermen, lumbermen, and far- 
mers besieged the fortress for six weeks. Meanwhile the people of 
Boston were holding weekly prayer meetings in behalf of the des- 
perate enterprise. The commander of the fortress was unfit for 
his place, and his garrison was mutinous. The fort fell and the 
news of this victory filled New England with joy. George II 
was so delighted that he made the American commander a bar- 
onet, with the title of Sir William Pepperrell, an honor never 
before conferred on one of our countrymen. 

When peace was made (1748) the fortress was restored to 
France; but its former fame was gone. The "Yankees" had 
mastered those proud walls which the French king once boasted 
no power on earth could take. 

164. The French and Indian War; Canada and the English 
colonies compared; the Ohio country. The fourth and last or 
French and Indian War (i 754-1 763) marks the culmination 
of the struggle between France and England for the possession 
of America. Hitherto New England and New York had borne 
the brunt of the contest, but now the whole country as far south 
as Virginia was threatened by the advance of the French toward 
the valley of the Ohio. The English colonies had a population 
more than ten times greater than that of Canada, but the Cana- 
dians were ruled by a despotic king who could and would force 
every man into the army. 

As early as 17 16 Governor Spotswood of Virginia (§ 137) had 
seen the importance of securing the rich country beyond the Blue 
Ridge, and had urged the English government to occupy the 



1748-1754] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 147 

valley of the Ohio. But it was more than thirty years later before 
any decided action was taken. Then (1748) Lawrence Washing- 
ton, an elder brother of George Washington, united with a number 
of influential Virginians in organizing the Ohio Company. 

This Company obtained from the king a grant of five hundred 
thousand acres of land on the east bank of the upper Ohio. The 
tract lay mainly between the Great Kanawha and Monongahela 
rivers, — a region now embraced by West Virginia and southwest 
Pennsylvania. The Company proposed to plant settlements in 
the Ohio country, to speculate in western lands, and to carry on 
the fur trade with the Indians. 

Some years later (1753), they opened a road by Will's Creek, 
a branch of the Potomac, and made preparations to send out 
emigrants. The French, through the explorations of La Salle 
(§ 159), claimed the Ohio country as their own. They resented 
its occupation by the English as an act of trespass, and promptly 
built a fort at Presque Isle (Erie) to defend their rights. They 
soon began a second (Fort Le Boeuf) south of it, and then a 
third south of that, at Venango. 

165. Washington's expedition (1753) ; Fort Duquesne ; the 
skirmish ; Fort Necessity. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent 
(1753) Major George Washington, a young man of twenty-one, 
to order the French to leave the country. It was a difficult and 
perilous undertaking, involving a winter's journey of nearly a 
thousand miles through the wilderness. Washington reached 
Venango, but the French officer at that post told him with an 
oath that the English should never have the Ohio ; and the 
commander at Fort Le Boeuf gave him the same answer. 

On his way through the forests Washington stopped at the 
point where the waters of the Allegheny and the Monongahela 
unite to form the Ohio. "I spent some time," said he, *'in 
viewing the rivers, and the land in the fork, which I think 
extremely well situated for a fort." He reported the military 
importance of the position to Governor Dinwiddie, and the 
governor sent (1754) a party of men to erect a fort at that 



148 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1754 

" Gateway of the West." The French swooped down upon the 
party, drove them off, and began to build a stronghold which they 
named Fort Duquesne. 

A Httle later, a detachment of French soldiers from Fort 
Duquesne encountered Washington at the head of a small party 
of Virginians. The young man at once gave the command to 
fire. It was the first shot in a war destined to determine the 
fate of France in the New World. The victory of the Virginians 
foretold the final triumph of the Enghsh in the great struggle. 

Colonel Washington now hastily built the stockade of Fort 
Necessity. Here on the fourth day of July, 1754, a strong body 
of French forced him to surrender. Just twenty-one years from 
that date, lacking a single day, Washington took command of the 
Continental army which was to win the war of the Revolution. 

166. The Albany Congress (1754) ; Franklin's plan pf confed- 
eration. The colonists now felt the need of united action. A 
congress was called at Albany (1754), to which New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, and the four New England colonies sent dele- 
gates. Representative warriors of the Iroquois or Six Nations 
met with the congress. 

Franklin, who was editing the Pennsylvania Gazette^ had al- 
ready made vigorous appeals in favor of union. He. had empha- 
sized the divided and helpless state of the colonies by a rude 
woodcut representing a snake cut in pieces, with the motto, ^' Join 
or die." He proposed that the colonies should form a confed- 
eration^ under the government of a president to be appointed 
and supported by the crown, and a council chosen by the colonial 
assembhes. 

The congress unanimously accepted Franklin's plan, but the 
colonial assemblies and the crown rejected it. The assemblies 
refused it because they thought it gave too much power to the 
king ; the king, because he considered that it gave too much 
power to the people. Even then reflecting men in England 
"dreaded American union as the keystone of independence." 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 52. 



1755] 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS I49 



167. Preparations for Braddock's campaign. The next year 
(1755) England sent over General Braddock to Virginia to lead 
an army of British regulars against the French. Braddock was 
a veteran soldier, boastful and 



Braddock 



brave, and accustomed to do ev- 
erything with the cut-and-dried 
precision of European miHtary 
methods. He despised back- 
woods men, and backwoods ways 
of fighting. 

The plan of the campaign was 
to attack the French simultane- 
ously at four important points, 
— Fort Duquesne, Fort Niagara, 
Crown Point on Lake Cham- 
plain, and Fort Beause'jour in the 
Acadian country at the head of 
the Bay of Fundy (§163). If 
successful, these movements 
would drive the French back to 
Canada. 

168. Braddock's expedition ; 
Washington ; the expulsion of the 
Acadians. Early in June (i755) 
Braddock set out accompanied 
by Colonel Washington and a 
body of Virginians, all eager to 
fight for "the best of kings." 
Braddock advanced from Fort 
Cumberland at the base of the 
Alleghenies, and began to climb 
the rough ridges of the mountains. Three hundred axmen led 
the van to clear the way. Behind them came the British regu- 
lars, a glittering array of scarlet and steel. The distance to Fort 
Duquesne was about a hundred and thirty miles. The progress 




Braddock's March 



150 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1755 

of the army was so slow that after a month's march they were still 
five miles from their destination. Up to this point all had gone 
well, when suddenly the English advance was greeted with a ter- 
rific Indian war whoop and was fired upon by an unseen foe.-^ 

Braddock fell, mortally wounded, and the British regulars *' ran 
like sheep pursued by dogs." The Virginians with Washington 
at their head were the only men on the English side who did 
any successful fighting. Braddock had lost more than half of 
his army. Washington saved what was left. This disastrous 
defeat of the British troops had one good result : it inspired the 
Virginians with confidence in their own methods of fighting, and 
it led at once to the creation of a military organization for the 
defense of the colony. 

The attack on Fort Niagara was given up, but the attack on 
Crown Point and that on Fort Beause'jour were completely suc- 
cessful. Then came the question what action should be taken 
respecting the Acadians, who, by conquest, were subjects of the 
king of England (§ 163). They were called " French neutrals " ; 
but at Beausejour no less than three hundred of these "neutrals " 
had been found fighting on the side of France. 

The British authorities suspected that the whole French pop- 
ulation of Nova Scotia was secretly hostile to King George. 
They now urged the Acadians to take the oath of allegiance to 
the English sovereign ; nine tenths of them refused. Then the 
English determined to banish them from the country. The un- 
suspecting people were called together in their parish churches 
and suddenly made prisoners. They were then hurried on board 
British transports and carried off to be distributed throughout 
the colonies from Maine to Georgia. The whole number thus 
kidnapped was between six and seven thousand. It was a terrible 
act, but apparently not contrary to the law of nations, and even 
France did not remonstrate.^ 

169. Pitt and victory. The French and Indian War had now 
been going on for more than three years, but the English could 

1 See Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, I, ch. vii, 2 ibid., I, ch. viii. 



1757-1759] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 151 



show no adequate results. Then (1757) the elder William Pitt 
entered the English cabinet ; he soon became the directing power 
of the British government. He grasped the helm with a master's 
hand. He had faith in America and called on the colonists to 
furnish twenty thousand men for a vigorous campaign. Pitt 
inspired the army with his own enthusiasm. He sent (1758) a 
strong force which recaptured Louisburg (§ 163), and the famous 
fort was dismantled and destroyed. 

Colonel George Washington planned the line of march of an 
expedition of seven thousand men against Fort Duquesne (1758); 
the French commander, having but a feeble garrison, blew up the 
fort and fled. A new 
structure, a part of 
which is still stand- 
ing, was built on the 
ruins of the French 
stronghold. It was 
named Fort Pitt in 
honor of the great 
statesman whose 
genius had made 
the war a success. 




The Siege of Quebec, 1759 

A settlement sprang up around this military 
post which has since grown into the city of Pittsburg, the largest 
iron manufacturing center in the world. 

Sir WiUiam Johnson of Johnson Hall, New York, led his Iroquois 
"braves" against Fort Niagara and took it. Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point fell, and so throughout the east the French were 
driven back to Canada. 

170. "Wolfe takes Quebec (1759). The next move made by the 
English was on Canada itself. Montcalm, one of the bravest and 
noblest of French soldiers, held the world-renowned fortress of 
Quebec. General Wolfe, the young English officer who had 
stormed the batteries of Louisburg (1758), led the British forces 
against the French stronghold. He besieged the place for nearly 
three months (1759), but without avail. Out of his army of less 



152 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1759-1763 

than nine thousand men he had lost nearly a thousand in des- 
perate assaults on the works. He had fretted himself into a fever, 
and began to doubt whether he would win the day. 

Finally, the English commander determined to make an attempt 
to scale the heights above the town. On a starlight night in 
September (1759) Wolfe landed five thousand men on the north 
shore of the river at the little cove which he himself had dis- 
covered, and which is now called by his name. 

Feeling their way in the darkness, the soldiers seized hold of 
projections of the rocks, branches of trees, and bushes, and so 
noiselessly chmbed up the almost perpendicular heights. When 
they reached the top, they reformed and marched silently on 
until they came to the Plains of Abraham outside the walls of 
Upper Quebec. There at dawn the French discovered them. 
There the decisive battle was fought. Both generals fell, mor- 
tally wounded. Wolfe lay bleeding on the ground, supported 
by an officer. "They run! they run!" exclaimed the officer. 
*'Who run?" asked Wolfe. "The French," was the reply. 
The English commander gave a final order, and then exclaimed 
with his last breath, " Now God be praised, I die in peace." 

Montcalm also lay dying. When told by the surgeon that he 
could not survive more than ten or twelve hours, he said : "So 
much the better ; I shall not hve to see the surrender of Quebec." ^ 

The fall of the capital of Canada really ended the Avar. It 
left the English in possession of everything which they had fought 
to gain, though peace was not formally declared until 1763. 

171. Conspiracy of Pontiac (1763). Four years later (1763), 
Pontiac, chief of a Michigan tribe, led a revolt of the savages liv- 
ing in the vicinity of the upper lakes. The chief was friendly to 
the French, and he beheved that with their help he could drive 
the English from the West. 

It was the most formidable and widespread plot ever devised 
by an Indian brain. Pontiac hoped to unite all of the savage 
tribes west of the Alleghenies in a general movement against the 

1 See Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, II, ch. xxvii. 



1763-] 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 



153 



colonies. The uprising met with such success that out of twelve 
military posts the Indians took eight and massacred their garri- 
sons. In the whole West only the forts at Detroit, Niagara, and 
Pittsburg held out against the savages. The final battle was 
fought under the walls of Detroit (1763). Two years later (1765), 
Pontiac was forced to beg for peace. It was the last general 
attempt on the part of the western tribes to drive out the Eng- 
lish settlers until, nearly half a century later, Tecumseh stirred 
up his famous revolt (1811).^ 

172. Results of the struggle between England and France for 
the possession of America (1689-1763). By the Treaty of Paris,^ 
made in 1763, France 
ceded to England all of 
her American posses- 
sions east of the Mis- 
sissippi except two 
small islands off the 
coast of Newfoundland 
which Great Britain 
permitted her to keep 
" as shelter to her fish- 
ermen." By a secret 
treaty, made the previ- 
ous year (1762), France 
V J ^ r J T,T North America AFTER THE Treaty OF 1763 

had transferred New 

Orleans to Spain, and with that city all of her lands west of the 
Mississippi ; of her former magnificent domain on the North 
American continent she now had not even a foothold left. 

Spain, in return for the restoration of Cuba, had ceded (1762) 
Florida to England (ceded back to Spain in 1783). At the close 
of 1763 England held the whole continent east of the Missis- 
sippi, from the frozen shores of the Polar Sea to the coral reefs 
of Florida, while Spain had her grasp on all the country west of 
the great river to the Pacific. 

1 See Parkman's Pontiac. 2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 54. 




154 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763 

By a proclamation^ issued by George III (1763) the lands west 
of the Alleghenies were reserved for the Indians. The intention 
of this royal mandate was to completely shut out the EngHsh set- 
tlers in America from the great valley of the Mississippi. The 
king's object was to prevent conflicts with the tribes west of the 
Alleghenies and at the same time to confine the colonists to a 
narrow area which could be readily controlled by Great Britain. 

But England paid a heavy price for the vast territory she had 
wrested from France. The expense of the war (in Europe and 
America) doubled the English national debt, raising it from 
^70,000,000 to ;£i 40,000,000. The British taxpayers pro- 
tested loudly against further outlay ; but further outlay seemed 
an absolute necessity. 

The crown declared that a standing army of at least ten thou- 
sand men must be sent to America. This force was to hold 
Canada and the Ohio Valley, otherwise the French and the 
Indians might rise and get back all that they had lost. 

In order to obtain money to pay this army, England resolved to 
impose a direct tax on the colonies, although they had furnished 
more than twenty thousand men (§ 169) and incurred a debt 
of ;^2, 600,000 in a war undertaken "in behalf of the mother 
country." ^ England paid part of this debt, but the king insisted 
on a tax for the future. Burke said that this last demand was the 
origin of the quarrel between the colonists and the mother-country. 

If, then, one result of the French war was to extend enor- 
mously the area of the American possessions held by England, on 
the other hand, the expense of that contest forced the king to 
adopt a policy which roused the resistance of the colonists. At 
the same time his refusal to permit emigration to the rich lands 
of the West increased the feeling of irritation. George III held 
stubbornly to this new policy, and relentlessly pushed it, until 
finally the Americans rose and fought the War for Independence. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 55. 

2 See Doyle's Essay on the American Colonies, 130; Bigelow's Franklin's Works, 
111,414- 




The King's Proclamation Line, 1763 



155 



156 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763 

General View of the Thirteen Colonies in 1763 ^ 

173. Settlement and population. In 1763 the population of 
the thirteen colonies was not far from 1,800,000, or less than half 
that of New York City to-day. Of this population somewhat 
more than 300,000 were slaves. These slaves were distributed 
throughout the colonies, but the number held north of '' Mason 
and Dixon's Line " (§ 145) was comparatively very small. The 
three largest cities were Philadelphia, New York, and Boston ; 
but none of them had a population exceeding 30,000. 

The original charters were often loosely drawn as respects 
geographical lines, and this led to much confusion and dispute 
(§§ 106, 145). But by virtue of those which ran from "sea to 
sea" six of the thirteen colonies, under the treaty of 1763 
(§ 172), claimed the Mississippi for their western boundary line 
(see maps on p. 35 and facing p. 226). New York made a similar 
claim on the ground of purchase of lands north of the Ohio from 
the Six Nations (§ 32). 

The great majority of the people lived along the Atlantic 
coast. Each colony had, as a rule, its own seaports, and was, 
therefore, commercially independent of the others ; west of the 
Alleghenies the whole country was almost an unbroken wilder- 
ness, although some adventurous pioneers had pushed into that 
region and made a few clearings in the forests. But further 
movement in that direction was prohibited by royal proclamation 
(§172). 

In New England a large proportion of the people had gathered 
in towns which had grown up around the parish meeting-house 
and the schoolhouse. Independent of all questions of trade, the 
religious societies of these colonies would have kept them com- 
pactly together. In the middle colonies the towns likewise em- 
braced a majority of the population ; but owing perhaps to the 
fact that the Indians of that section were generally friendly, 

1 See Thwaites' Colonies, ch. xiv ; Hart's Formation of the Union, ch. vii ; Lodge's 
Colonies; Fisher's Colonial Era; Thorpe's Constitutional History, I, ch. ii-iv. 



1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 157 

there were more scattered settlements than in New England, and 
in some cases they extended farther westward. 

At the South the tobacco and rice plantations did not favor the 
growth of compact settlements. Jefferson humorously declared, 
" The law has said that there shall be towns, but nature has said 
there shall not." Generally speaking, the colonists lived apart 
from each other. ^ Charleston, Baltimore, and Savannah were the 
principal southern cities, and of these the first only had a popu- 
lation exceeding 5000. 

A large majority of the people, especially in New England and 
Virginia, were of pure English descent. In the middle colonies, 
especially in Pennsylvania and New York, there were a good 
many Germans and Dutch, besides some Swedes and Scotch. 
South CaroHna had an influential Huguenot (§ 135) element, 
and probably most of the colonies, if not indeed all, had more 
or less of the same class, with some Irish and a few Jews ; as for 
the Scotch-Irish (§ 52), they or their descendants could be found 
in varying numbers everywhere. It is estimated that about one 
fifth of the population of the thirteen colonies had some other 
language than English for their mother tongue. Collectively the 
people called themselves Americans. 

Owing to the immense immigration which has since taken place, 
not much more than half of our present population can claim 
English as their native language.^ Furthermore, statistics seem 
to show that the birth rate among native Americans, especially in 
New England, has fallen off to such an extent that it is doubtful 
if they will continue to hold their own. 

174. Government of the colonies. Three forms of government 
were in force in the colonies in 1763, namely, government by 
charter (Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island), by Pro- 
prietaries (Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland), and by the 
crown in the seven remaining provinces. The general supervision 
of the colonies was in the hands of a board of trade, popularly 

1 On the effect of this isolation see Mace's Method in History, 83. 

2 See Wright's Industrial Evolution of the United States, 15. 



158 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i763 

called the '' Lords of Trade." This board, appointed by the king 
(1696), had its headquarters in London. It required annual 
reports from the colonial governors in America concerning the 
general condition and growth of their respective provinces. 

No other colonists in the world enjoyed the pohtical hberty 
which England granted to her subjects in America. The Spanish 
and French governments on this continent were practically mili- 
tary despotisms, and the settlers in Mexico, Florida, and Canada 
had no voice whatever in making laws, electing officers, or levy- 
ing taxes. Holland indeed was disposed to treat her provinces 
in a more hberal spirit, but still she gave them far less than 
England gave hers. 

Two of the thirteen colonies, Connecticut and Rhode Island, 
elected their governors and their legislatures; they were repub- 
lics in everything but name. In the remaining eleven colonies, 
though the king or the Proprietaries appointed the governors, 
yet the people elected the members of the Assembly. 

These eleven governors, who were in most cases Englishmen 
sent over by the king, were clothed with the following powers : 
(i) they commanded the military and naval forces of their 
respective colonies ; (2) they chose the members of the council 
or upper house of Legislature ; (3) they made grants of lands and 
collected land rents ; (4) they granted pardons ; (5) they assem- 
bled and dissolved the Legislature, and (except in Pennsylvania) 
they could permanently veto any legislative bill. 

The colonial legislatures had three most important powers : 
(i) they (with the governor's consent) enacted the laws, which, 
however, were not to be repugnant to those of England, and 
which were subject to the king's veto ; (2) they levied all gen- 
eral taxes; (3) they fixed the amount of the governor's salary, 
and also the salaries of the judges (until 1761) and other leading 
officers. This power over the purse gave the legislatures the 
virtual control of the government, and as the lower house was 
made up entirely of representatives elected by the people, it 
made them the real rulers. 



1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 159 

In all the colonies the right to vote was limited to persons 
possessed of a certain amount of property. In all of the colo- 
nies, except Pennsylvania and Delaware, Catholics were excluded 
from the polls, though it is denied that this law was enforced in 
Rhode Island (§126). By the beginning of the eighteenth century 
the right to vote appears to have been restricted, in all of the 
colonies, to Protestants.-^ The restriction of suffrage to property 
holders cut off a large per cent of the adult male population 
from any voice in the direct management of public affairs and 
imbued the government with an aristocratic spirit. In Rhode 
Island this state of things eventually led to what is known as 
the Dorr Rebellion (1842). An order of Queen Anne's (1702), 
enforcing the Test Act, shut out all persons not Protestants from 
holding any public office in the colonies. 

The common law of England was also the common law of the 
colonies ; but it was modified by acts of the legislatures. 

In Massachusetts, and generally throughout New England, 
each town managed its local affairs by a meeting held once a 
year. At such meetings the people voted for town officers, for 
the building and repair of roads, the care of the poor, and the 
support of churches and schools. This system made New Eng- 
land a collection of " village republics " in which all gradation of 
power was from the people upward (§ 88). 

In Virginia, and generally throughout the South, the manage- 
ment of local affairs, such as the building and repair of roads 
and the levying of taxes for such purposes, was under the con- 
trol of certain county officers appointed by the governor; so 
that in the South the gradation of power was from the governor 
downward (§ 43). Each parish, however, was managed by a com- 
mittee (§ 50), composed usually of the leading members of the 
Episcopal Church (the only Church there estabhshed by law). 
These committees, which were practically self- elective, and hence 
close corporations, provided for the maintenance of public worship 
and looked after the poor. 

1 See Professor Stille in Pennsylvania Magazine, IX, 374. 



l6o THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763 

In the middle colonies a mixed system of town and county 
government prevailed, the people of the towns electing one or 
more of the county officers. 

175. Courts of justice; laws of inheritance. Except in the 
three proprietary colonies (Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Dela- 
ware) and in Connecticut and Rhode Island, the crown, directly 
or indirectly, appointed the judges of the superior courts. They 
held their office, not during good behavior, as in England, but 
during the pleasure of the royal governor or of his master the 
king. For this reason the judges naturally felt themselves bound 
to maintain the interests of the crown ; but, on the other hand, 
up to 1 76 1 they were constantly reminded by the assemblies 
that their salaries depended on the good will of the people who 
paid them. After 1761 the salaries of the judges were paid out 
of the king's land rents, and so the judges were freed from all 
responsibility to the people. 

The vice-admiralty courts, which were established to deal with 
maritime cases,, were especially obnoxious to the mercantile com- 
munity. It was the duty of these courts to enforce the Naviga- 
tion Acts (§§ 48, 102, 177), the laws of trade (§ 177), and to 
punish smuggling. The cases were tried not by jury but by a 
bench of judges. The severity of their sentences made them 
especially unpopular with merchants and shipowners. 

If England discriminated by her Navigation Acts against her 
American colonies, on the other hand the colonists were not slow 
to retaliate. By the laws of Maryland (i 704), an Englishman emi- 
grating to that country could not hold office until after residence 
for a term of years ; a similar law existed in other colonies. 

In Massachusetts British merchants did not enjoy the same 
privileges as colonists. Throughout America colonial creditors 
had a prior claim over English creditors in the collection of debts. 

The laws and customs relating to the inheritance of real estate 
had an important influence on the condition of society. In Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, and New York property passed to the eldest son 
as in England. This system naturally tended to keep up the 



1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS l6l 

family name and position, and to establish a permanent landed 
aristocracy. Later (1776), Jefferson's attacks completely demol- 
ished this system in Virginia. In New England the property was 
divided among all the children, but the eldest son usually received 
a double share. 

The movement toward equal division eventually triumphed 
in all of the colonies. Daniel Webster said that these changes, 
helped to lay the material basis of republican government. 

176. Conflicting interests of the colonies; slavery; the "poor 
whites." Though the thirteen colonies were practically one in 
modes of government and in religion, and though the English 
race predominated, yet conflicting interests separated them on 
many points. 

Unquestionably one of the most serious obstacles to union arose 
from the fact that the labor systems of the North and the South 
were radically unlike in their tendencies. The South was almost 
entirely devoted to agriculture in its simplest form ; the North, 
while not neglecting agriculture, was largely devoted to commerce. 
Both sections held indented white servants, many of whom were 
felons (§§42, 44). Both sections too owned negroes who, as a 
rule, were humanely treated and neither ovenvorked nor under- 
fed ; but at the South climate, soil, and productions fostered the 
growth of slavery and made it more and more profitable, while 
at the North all these influences were against it. 

The foreign slave trade was active ; it was to a great extent in 
the hands of New England men, and there were merchants in 
Salem, Boston, and Newport who regularly sent out cargoes of 
trinkets and rum to Africa to exchange for shiploads of Guinea 
negroes to be sold at auction in the South. 

James I sent at least a hundred convicts to Virginia ; later, 
many political prisoners taken in the civil wars were shipped as 
slaves to America, most of them probably to the British West 
Indies. In 17 18 Parliament enacted a law permitting convicts to 
be transported to this country; between that date and 1776 large 
numbers were sent over. 



l62 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [17CP. 

There were also voluntary white immigrants, called " free 
willers " or " redemptioners," who sold themselves for a short 
term of years to pay the cost of their passage over.^ They were 
most numerous in Pennsylvania. They were often driven about 
the country in gangs by men called '' soul drivers," who disposed 
of them to farmers. As late as 1792 Washington urged buying a 
shipload of them in Germany to work on the public grounds and 
public buildings of the national capital. 

The industrial differences between the North and the South 
were producing two different types of civilization, and were breed- 
ing not only antagonism of interests but bitter sectional hatred. 
Thus the seeds of the great conflict (i 861-1865) were sown, and 
were slowly maturing for the inevitable harvest. 

A movement against slavery began in Pennsylvania (1688), and 
Judge Sewall of Boston wrote a tract against it (1700).^ Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, and Franklin were, however, the first leading 
men who denounced it as a blight and a curse (§ 45). The 
people of the South were gradually separated into two classes, — 
the few who owned slaves, and the many, the " poor whites," who 
did not own them. They could not compete with negro labor, 
and they w^ere ashamed to try to compete with it. 

But the rich southern slaveholders had whatever high-bred 
virtues naturally belong to an aristocracy. When the day of need 
came, this class furnished leaders in the cause of independence 
who w^re every w^hit as ardent as those who sprang from New 
England or from the middle colonies. The so-called '' poor 
whites" showed too on the battlefields of the Revolution, as they 
did nearly a hundred years later on those of the Civil War, that 
they were not " poor " in courage, fortitude, or self-denial. 

177. Colonial industries; commerce; manufactures; currency. 
Down to the beginning of the eighteenth century wages were 
quite generally regulated by law, and two shillings seems to have 
been the usual pay for a day's work. 

1 See Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, II, No. 107. 

2 Ibid., II, Nos. 102, 103, 106. 



1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 163 

The great staples of the South were tobacco, rice, indigo, and 
the products of the pine forests of North CaroHna. Pennsylvania 
exported iron ; New York carried on a large trade in furs. New 
England was actively engaged in whaling and codfishing, and in 
distilling rum from West India molasses. A gilt figure of a cod- 
fish still hangs in the chamber of the House of Representatives 
in the statehouse in Boston. Like the sack of wool in the Eng- 
lish House of Lords, it is an honorable emblem of what was once 
a chief source of the wealth of Massachusetts. 

Shipbuilding had long been carried on in New England and 
Pennsylvania, and the English shipbuilders complained with good 
reason that America was driving their vessels from the ocean. 
Early in the eighteenth century (i 713), Captain Andrew Robinson 
of Gloucester, Massachusetts, launched the first schooner, — a type 
of vessel which has since come into use throughout the world. 

The commerce of the colonies in '^ nonenumerated articles" 
(§ 48), such as grain, salted provisions, fish, rum, and timber, 
grew steadily. New England had a fleet of between five and six 
hundred sailing craft employed in the West Indian and other 
foreign trade. Beside their lawful commerce the colonies carried 
on smuggling systematically and almost openly until George III 
came to the throne. Then the crown undertook, with more or 
less success, to enforce the Navigation Acts (§ 48). In 1733 
Parliament had passed a Molasses x^ct^ which imposed severe 
restrictions on trade with the French and Spanish West Indies. 
This was done for the double purpose of protecting the " Sugar 
Islands " of the British West Indies against foreign competition 
and to raise a revenue from the colonies. This law was the first 
direct tax laid by England on her American possessions ; but it 
was not enforced. In 1764 Parliament amended it and issued 
it in a modified form, with a lower rate of duty, under the name 
of the Sugar Act.^ The attempt to collect this duty led to con- 
flicts with the revenue officers. But in spite of all restrictions 
American trade continued to increase. 

1 See Macdonald's vSelect Charters, etc., No. 50. 2 ibid., No. s6. 



l64 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763 

Large as our exports were, our imports from Great Britain 
were nearly twice as great, and Lord Chatham said in Parliament, 
"America is the fountain of our wealth, the nerve of our strength." 
He declared that Great Britain made a profit of ^2,000,000 a 
year out of her American trade. 

x\side from the production of certain classes of coarse goods, 
there were few manufactures in the colonies. The first fulling 
mill appears to have been set up by John Pearson in 1643 ^^ 
Rowley, Massachusetts. England, acting on the protective prin- 
ciple, checked the growth of colonial manufactures by all sorts of 
vexatious legislation in order that she might keep the monopoly 
of supply for her own merchants. Parliament (1699) prohibited 
the export of American wool or woolen goods to any other 
country or from one colony to another. 

The House of Commons resolved (17 19) that "the erecting 
manufactories in the colonies tended to lessen their dependence." 
Later (175 0-1765), Parliament forbade the colonies to make 
ironware of any kind, and the erection of any new iron furnaces 
and iron mills in Pennsylvania or elsewhere w^as prohibited as 
a "nuisance." Again, although America was the home of the 
beaver, yet Parliament passed a law (1732) forbidding the colo- 
nists to export beaver hats to England, to any foreign country, 
or even from one colony to another.^ But tyrannical as these 
trade restrictions now seem, they were far less severe than those 
imposed by other European countries on their colonies. Even Pitt, 
America's best friend in Parhament, upheld this policy, although 
he denied the right of direct taxation of the colonists (§ 190). 

Such goods as the colonists were permitted to produce were 
made largely by hand, although horse power, wind power, and 
water powder were used to some extent. Steam as a manufacturing 
agent was still unknown in the world, and the first steam engine 



1 See Lecky's History of England, III, 325 ; Weeden's Economic History of New 
England, I, 388; 11,722; Bancroft's United States (last revised edition), H, 81 ; HI, 
107-108, 240; Hildreth's United States, H, 213, 352, 431; Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity Studies, X, 547, 574. 





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1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 165 

in America was not set up until about the beginning of the 
nineteenth century. 

The need of a sound currency was sorely felt in all of the colo- 
nies. In Virginia tobacco had served for money for a time, but 
unfortunately it was subject to sudden and violent fluctuations 
in value according as the price abroad rose and fell. In New 
England, and in some of the other colonies, wampum (§ 29) had 
long been in use, and did excellent service in trade with the 
Indians. Corn and cattle were also used for currency, and one stu- 
dent at Harvard College paid his tuition bill with '' an old cow." ^ 
Massachusetts, indeed, ventured to set up a mint and strike off 
debased silver coins and coppers, but long before 1763 this mint 
had been suppressed. Most of the specie that came into the 
country consisted of Spanish dollars brought from the West 
Indies in exchange for exports, together with some English gold 
and silver ; but this specie soon found its way into the pockets 
of the London merchants. 

This constant drain of gold and silver out of the colonies natu- 
rally compelled them to undertake the issue of paper money. 
Most of this proved utterly worthless. The English Board of 
Trade (§ 174) instructed the royal colonial governors to veto the 
bills which the legislatures enacted for the issue of this irredeem- 
able paper money, and the quarrels to which these vetoes gave 
rise were one cause leading to the Revolution. 

178. Roads ; travel ; the post office. Owing to the very general 
lack of good roads the chief part of the transportation was, when 
practicable, by water. Large quantities of furs and freight of all 
kinds were carried in canoes on the rivers and lakes. New York in 
particular offered great facilities in this respect. Where rivers were 
not available for reaching the interior, pack horses were employed. 
They carried the goods in long bags slung across their backs. 

The roads were frequently simply Indian trails ; in other cases 
there was no path at all, and the way through the trackless forests 
was indicated by blazed trees ; bridges were almost unknown. 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 18-21. 



l66 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763 

Pennsylvania was one of the few colonies which had a number of 
fairly good roads ; they radiated from Philadelphia. Thousands 
of huge wagons carried produce to that busy port, which had 
an export trade of more than ^700,000 a year. Boston (1763) 
ranked next in this respect. 

There was but little passenger travel, — so little, in fact, that 
it was not very uncommon for a man to make his will when he 
ventured to go any distance from home. The usual mode of 
travel between the principal cities, such as Boston, Philadelphia, 
New York, and Charleston, was by sailing vessels. The time 
required for making such a journey was as uncertain as the wind. 
Not infrequently men preferred to go on horseback to avoid vex- 
atious delays. If a wife went with her husband on one of these 
journeys, she usually rode behind him on a pillion. 

Toward the close of the colonial period a line of rude stage 
wagons was put on the route (1756) between Philadelphia and 
New York. They made trips once a week. Their average speed 
was usually rather less than three miles an hour ; but as the roads 
were rough and the wagons had no springs, the passengers prob- 
ably seldom begged to go faster. Later (1766), some enterprising 
individual put a new stage on the route. He advertised it as 
the "Flying Machine"; under favorable circumstances it flew 
at a speed of perhaps five miles an hour. 

The first post office in the colonies was not estabUshed until 
1 7 10, or more than a century after the settlement of Virginia. 
The mails were scanty. They were generally carried on horse- 
back. The rates of postage for a single letter ranged, in modern 
currency, from eight to twenty-five cents, according to distance. 
When Benjamin Franklin was appointed postmaster-general 
(1753) he startled the good people of Philadelphia by putting 
on a regular weekly mail between that city and Boston ; there 
was no postal service between Boston and inland towns before 
the Revolution. 

179. Religion ; freedom of worship ; the press. In the South 
the Episcopal Church, the EstabHshed Church of all the royal 




To the P U B L 1 C 

THE FLYING MACHINE, kept by 
John Mercereau, at the New- Blazing-Star- Ferry, 
near New- York, fets off from Powles-Hook every Mon- 
day, VVediiefday, and Frids^y Mornings, for Philadelphia,, 
and performs the Journey in a Day and a Half, for the 
Summer Seafon, till the I ft of November j from that Time 
logo twice a Week till the firfl of May, when they 
again perform it three Times a Week. When the Stages 
go only twice a Week, they itt off Mondays andThurf- 
days. The Waggons in Philadelphia fet out from the 
Sign of the George, in Second- flreef, the fam^ Morning. 
TJ^e Paffengers are defwed to crofs the Ferry the Evening 
before, as the Stages mufl fet off early the next Morning. 
The Price for each Paffenger is J^cnly Shillings ^ Proc.*and 
Goods as ufual. Paffengers going Fart of the Way to pay 
in Proportion. 

As the Proprietor has made fuch Improvements upon 
the Machines, one of which is in Imitation oi aCoach, 
he hopes to merit the Favour of the Publick. 

JOHN MERCEREAU. 

FLYING MACHINE 



* " Proc." ; Proclamation-money or lawful money according to the proclamation 
of Queen Anne in 1704. 



17(53] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 167 

colonies, was the most influential ; but numerically the Pres- 
byterians were strong, and together with the Congregationalists 
were constantly growing stronger. In Pennsylvania the Quakers 
and the German Lutherans predominated. In the remaining 
middle colonies Episcopacy was maintained by law, but other 
denominations were tolerated. Maryland, had by far the great- 
est number of Catholics. Yet even there they did not constitute 
more than a small per cent of the population. 

In Massachusetts Episcopacy was encouraged by the royal gov- 
ernor, who attended the " King's Chapel " in Boston. The dread 
lest the crown should appoint an Episcopal bishop may be con- 
sidered as one of the causes which operated in Massachusetts 
to bring on the Revolution. In Rhode Island the Baptists had 
become a controlling power. A few Methodists had settled in 
New York, but no preachers of that denomination arrived until 
several years later (1769). The following year (1770) a Univer- 
salist minister began to form two or three societies of that faith. 
The first Congregational churches of Massachusetts were based 
not on a creed, but on a "covenant" or bond of fellowship 
(§§ 82, 86) ; these religious societies with very few exceptions 
eventually became Unitarian in their faith, though this form of 
belief was not formally organized in Boston until after the close 
of the Revolution (1785). In Massachusetts the compulsory 
support of public Congregational worship was not abolished until 
many years later (1833). The social lines drawn in the churches 
made them essentially aristocratic, and the seats were allotted 
according to the standing of the occupants in the community. 

The only colony which openly tolerated entire freedom of 
worship by legislative enactment was Rhode Island. In Virginia, 
where all property holders were taxed to support the established 
Episcopal Church, no other faith was legally recognized. 

In western Virginia there were many dissenters, mostly Presby- 
terians. They were permitted to organize and maintain churches 
of their own on condition that they made certain concessions to 
the Established (Episcopal) Church. Jefferson secured (1776) 



l68 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763 

partial toleration, and eventually (1785) his influence obtained 
the passage of the famous act granting entire religious freedom. 

In all of the colonies, except Rhode Island, laws existed which 
forbade Catholics from holding public worship ; but in Pennsyl- 
vania the law was not enforced, and as early as 1734 a Catholic 
church — the first outside of the original church of Maryland — 
was erected in Philadelphia.^ 

That art which has been truly said to be " preservative of all 
arts " was first introduced into the colonies by the establishment 
of a printing press at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1639. For 
forty years it remained the only press in British America. The 
next press outside of Massachusetts was permanently set up at 
Philadelphia (1686), and the next at New York (1693). No 
printing could be done except by special license, although most 
of the restrictions were removed by 1755. 

The first permanent newspaper established in the colonies was 
the Boston News Letter, which made its appearance in 1704. 
It was printed weekly, and consisted of half a sheet of coarse, 
dingy paper about the size of a child's pocket handkerchief. 
The first attempt made by any newspaper to discuss public affairs 
was when James Franklin (1723) criticised the action of the Mas- 
sachusetts authorities in his New England Coiu-ant. It was in 
certain respects the forerunner of the poorest class of modern 
sensational dailies, differing from them mainly because its lim- 
ited circulation greatly restricted its demoralizing and destructive 
power. Its publication was stopped by the authorities. 

Peter Zenger, the publisher of the New York Weekly Jou7'- 
7ial, first succeeded (1734) in establishing the right (§ 69) of 
a newspaper to censure acts of the government. He thus laid 
the foundation for the absolute liberty of the press which was 
finally recognized after the Revolution.^ 

180. Literature and education. Up to 1763 very few American 
books of note had been published. Wealthy men imported the 

1 See Prof. Stille, Pennsylvania Magazine, IX, 375, and Hildreth's United States, 
II, 343. 2 See Thomas' History of Printing in America (1874), 



1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 169 

standard English authors, but in New England sermons by the 
Puritan ministers formed a large part of the solid reading in that 
section. 

The most remarkable production in verse was the Reverend 
Michael Wigglesworth's " Day of Doom." It was a realistic 
description of the " Great and Last Judgment," and especially of 
the unutterable torments of lost souls. For a hundred years 
after its pubhcation in Boston (1662), no other book commanded 
a sale equal to it. Peddlers hawked it from house to house, and 
little children learned it by heart along with their catechism. 
As late as the early part of the nineteenth century there were men 
and women living who had read and re-read the lurid pages of 
this poem by the flickering light of a New England fireside 
until every line seemed to have been burnt into their memories, 
and they could repeat the whole of the two hundred and twenty- 
four verses word by word. 

In prose we have Cotton Mather's "Magnalia" (1702). It 
was a huge folio narrating the church history of New England, 
and was by far the most important book of the kind published 
in that period. Later, there appeared Dummer's " Defence of 
the New England Charters" (1728), a vigorously written pam- 
phlet, which was followed by a multitude of others discussing 
and defending the rights of the colonists. The most noteworthy 
southern contributions to American literature were Beverly's 
"History of Virginia" (1705), followed by Stith's history of the 
same colony (1747). 

The two master writers of the period were Benjamin Franklin 
and Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was a Puritan minister of the 
strictest sort ; Franklin was a man of the world, an independent 
thinker, who hired no one to guess for him about anything. 
In 1732, while editing the Pennsylvania Gazette, a paper which 
he printed with his own hands, he began the publication of an 
almanac popularly known as " Poor Richard's Almanac." 

He scattered through his almanac maxims which preached the 
gospel of thrift, self-help, and manly independence. These pithy 



I/O THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763 

sayings of " Poor Richard " had a wide influence. They were 
reprinted on sheets (1754) under the title of "The Way to 
Wealth," and framed and hung up in houses and shops. There 
can be no doubt that they did much towards shaping American 
life when, as an eminent English statesman said, it was " in the 
gristle and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." 

Later, Frankhn wrote numerous political pamphlets and scien- 
tific papers; several of the former had a decided bearing on 
questions relating to the welfare of the colonies and the need 
of union and of self-defense.^ 

Jonathan Edwards was a country minister settled in North- 
ampton, and later in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was a man 
of deep religious convictions, of vigorous intellect, and of noble 
purpose. 

His preaching expressed the same feeling as that which found 
utterance in the " Day of Doom." It was largely an appeal to 
fear, and it gave rise to that remarkable re\ival (1740) called the 
" Great Awakening." That movement shook New England like 
an earthquake, and made itself felt as far south as Virginia. It 
called into existence a great number of independent exhorters 
and preachers ; they broke up many of the old parishes in Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut into opposite factions known as the 
*' Old Lights " and the " New Lights." This led to the forma- 
tion of societies holding views of their own. These new socie- 
ties, in a number of cases, withdrew from the more rigid Puritan 
organization, and so, in the end, helped to bring about the sepa- 
ration of Church and State. 

Later (1754), Edwards published his great work on the "Free- 
dom of the Will " ; his object was to show that there is no true 
and permanent liberty save that which springs from right doing, 
and that the power to do right comes only from above. His 
book was destined to have a profound influence on that small 
number of thinkers whose thoughts influence the world. 

1 See Tyler's History of American Literature (1607-1765) ; The Cambridge 
United States, chapter on American Literature by Professor Barrett Wendell. 



1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 171 

By 1763 the common-school system of New England had been 
in existence for more than a century (§ 93), but even in Massa- 
chusetts such schools were not, as a rule, fully maintained by 
public taxation until 1827, or nearly fifty years after the country 
had gained its independence as a nation. Twelve years later 
(1839), the first normal school in the United States was estab- 
lished at Lexington, Massachusetts. 

This system did not (1763) extend south of Connecticut; 
numerous schools, however, existed in -New Jersey and in New 
York, and Pennsylvania was noted for its "log colleges."^ 

In Virginia and throughout the South there was no system of 
public instruction. Governor Berkeley, speaking of the " Old 
Dominion" (1671), said: "I thank God there are no free 
schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have [them] these 
hundred years ; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy 
and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and 
libels against the best government. God keep us from both." 

Yet Governor Berkeley was not an enemy to higher education, 
for he subscribed for the founding of "a college of students of 
the liberal arts and sciences." What he feared was a democratic 
system of free instruction, such as he believed would tend to 
undermine the authority of Church and King. 

The wealthy planters not infrequently employed classical tutors 
for their eldest sons, the heirs of their estates, or sent them to 
the college of William and Mary or to the mother-country to be 
educated. Augustine Washington sent his eldest son Lawrence 
to England for that purpose, but placed his younger son George 
in a little school kept by the sexton of the parish, where the 
lad was duly taught to read, write, and cipher. A large number 
of the " poor whites " never had an opportunity to acquire even 
these rudiments of learning. They got their education from 
things, not from books. 

1 See Boone's Education in the United States ; Martin's Evolution of the Massa- 
chusetts Public School System ; Hinsdale's Documents of American Educational 
History. 



172 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763 

By 1763 six colleges had been established in the colonies. 
They were Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), Yale 
(1701), Princeton (1746), the University of Pennsylvania (i753)> 
and Columbia (1754); a seventh, Brown University, soon after- 
ward came into existence (1764). 

181. Science and art; discoveries and inventions. In art we 
had two noted painters, Copley and West. The latter had been 
painting portraits in Philadelphia at five guineas a head, but went 
to Italy before the close of 1763. Copley was painting in Boston, 
and John Hancock and his friend Samuel Adams were soon to 
sit for their portraits, both of which now hang in the Boston Art 
Museum. 

Copley was painting a picture in London when (1782) the 
news was received of the acknowledgment of American inde- 
pendence by Great Britain. " With a bold hand and a master's 
touch" the artist introduced a ship in the background flying the 
" stars and stripes"; it was probably the first American flag that 
was hoisted in old England. 

In the field of scientific discovery America had made her mark. 
Franklin was engaged in his famous experiments with electricity, 
and the leading scientists of France wrote to him, "We are all 
waiting with the greatest eagerness to hear from you." They did 
not wait in vain, for Franklin, by the use of nothing more remark- 
able than a boy's kite, succeeded (175 1) in estabhshing the fact 
that the electricity produced by friction, and the lightning of the 
thunderclouds are one and the same thing. That was the begin- 
ning of the wonderful development which, after the lapse of nearly 
a century, has since taken place, and is now rapidly advancing. 
The hghtning rod was the first step in that practical knowledge 
of electricity which has since given us the telegraph and telephone, 
and which now provides the silent power which lights houses and 
streets, cooks food, photographs invisible objects, drives machinery 
and automobiles, propels and heats cars, signals the approach of 
trains, rings fire alarms, and threatens in time to drive steam 
entirely into the background. 



1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 173 

Another name destined to take high rank in the history of 
science was that of Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford), then 
a boy at school in his native town of Woburn, Massachusetts. 
In his researches many years later he discovered that heat is a 
mode of motion, and he laid the foundation of the modern doc- 
trine of the correlation of forces. 

182. Mode of life.^ Throughout the colonies the great mass of 
the people lived in the utmost simplicity. The farmhouses were 
generally built of logs, or of rough, unpainted clapboards. The 
cooking was done before huge open wood fires or in large brick 
ovens. The food was generally coarse but abundant. There were 
comparatively few vegetables, but plenty of apples and cider. 

Salt pork was the meat most commonly eaten, but venison 
and other game were by no means rare. Corn in the form of 
hominy, mush, or hoecake, and rye bread were more generally 
seen on the table than bread made of wheat. 

Tallow candles, whale-oil lamps, and open wood fires gave 
fight in the evening. Friction matches did not come into use 
until long after the Revolution, and the only way of kindling a 
fire was to strike a spark by a flint and steel, catch it on some 
tinder, and blow it to a blaze. 

Men and women dressed chiefly in homespun, which the wives 
and daughters of the farmers manufactured in the long winter 
evenings with their spinning wheels and hand looms. 

In New England Sunday was kept very strictly ; every one was 
expected to attend church, and all travel or labor, except in cases 
of absolute necessity, was forbidden. 

In all of the colonies lawbreakers were summarily and sharply 
dealt with. Ordinary offenders were put in the stocks, exposed 
on the pillory, or publicly whipped, much to the edification of the 
bystanders. Serious crimes were punished by imprisonment or by 
the gallows, and hangings took place where all could witness them. 

In and near the cities there were occasional fine mansions. 
Some of these, such as the Longfellow House in Cambridge, 

1 See Earle's Home Life in Colonial Days. 



174 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [17(13 

Massachusetts, the Van Rensselaer Manor House at Greenbush, 
New York, the Carrollton House near Baltimore, and the Byrd 
House at Westover, near Richmond, Virginia, are excellent ex- 
amples of the higher class of colonial architecture. 

The owners of these houses frequently lived in a good deal of 
style. They imported French wines and silver plate for their 
tables, dressed in stately costumes of velvet and brocade set off 
with ruffles, and wore flowing wigs or powdered hair. 

Social lines were more sharply drawn than at present. Broadly 
speaking, to-day every inhabitant of the United States who is not 
a lady is a gentleman, but in colonial days these names were 
given, as a rule, only to persons holding some acknowledged 
and well-defined social position. In fact, in the colonies, as in 
England, the aristocratic spirit prevailed to a great extent in the 
eighteenth century. It showed itself in the churches (§ 179), in 
the existence of slavery (§ 176), in the laws of inheritance (§ 175), 
in the limitations of suffrage (§ 174), and in methods of govern- 
ment (§ 174). This point is vitally essential to a correct under- 
standing of that period, and its influence extended after the 
United States had gained their independence. 

183. Indications of the coming Revolution. Not long before 
the Revolution a marked change took place in the reading habits 
of many of the people. Burke, in speaking of America in 1775, 
said, " In no country in the world is the law so general a study." 
Not only did the colonists import a large number of law books, 
but they had begun to publish them. It is said that nearly as 
many copies of Blackstone's Commentaries were sold in America 
as in England. Public affairs were discussed to such an extent 
that a noted Frenchm.an said of the Americans, "They are all 
politicians, down to the housemaids." 

This interest in public matters, joined to the study of law, was 
preparing the leaders of the colonists to take a decided stand in 
defense of their rights. English statesmen expressed their admi- 
ration for the ability with which the Americans drew up their 
petitions for justice and their protests against oppression. 



1763] ENGLISH AND FRENCH SETTLEMENTS 175 

Notwithstanding the fact that the EngHsh Board of Trade had 
accused the Massachusetts colonists of having " a thirst for inde- 
pendence," yet the general feeling of all the colonies appears 
to have been loyal until a late date. In a sermon on the death 
of George II (1760), the Reverend Jonathan Mayhew of Boston 
said that the people had regarded the late king as a father 
rather than a sovereign, and that they hoped to sit " under the 
shadow of his successor with great delight." The coronation of 
George III was celebrated with all the pomp the colonists could 
muster. They felt that the glory of the mother-country was still 
their glory, and they rejoiced " publicly on every victory of the 
English arms." 

Franklin testified before the House of Commons that up to the 
passage of the Stamp Act (1765) the colonists ''were led by a 
thread." They had, he said, " not only a respect, but an affec- 
tion for Great Britain." It was natural that it should be so, for 
a large proportion of the people were of direct English descent. 
The laws, the language, the literature, the religion of America 
were to a great extent those of England. 

But if the bond which united us to the mother-country was 
strong, so too was the spirit of resistance to injustice. In the 
cordage of the British navy a scarlet fiber is twisted into every 
strand of rope to mark it ; so throughout the colonies, interwoven 
with the universal feeling of loyalty, there was this distinct and 
unmistakable determination to insist on the same constitutional 
rights which were granted to Englishmen at home. When 
George III positively refused to acknowledge those rights, when 
no petition however humble and no protest however vehement 
could move him, then the American people deliberately took the 
final step. In this action all the colonies were united, for a 
majority in all "wanted the same Revolution." 

184. Importance of the colonial period. The Revolution brought 
the colonial period to a close. To rightly estimate it we should 
remember that in the growth of a nation, as in the growth of a 
tree, the roots count as much as the top. Many events of the 



176 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1763] 

first importance originated in that period (1607-17 76) : (i) the 
English-speaking race got firm possession of the Atlantic coast 
and extended their territory as far west as the Mississippi ; then, 
too, emigration began to the country beyond the Alleghenies ; 
(2) then many local customs, laws, and institutions were estab- 
lished which must continue to have great influence on the wel- 
fare of the whole country ; (3) the leading industries of America 
to-day were planted by the early settlers and their descendants ; 
(4) they, too, first enunciated the great principle of complete 
religious toleration ; they laid the foundation of our oldest col- 
leges and of the public-school system of the United States ; and 
they established the liberty of the press; (5) in that period, too, 
the conception of national independence was born and a com- 
mittee was chosen to frame the first constitution of the republic ; 
(6) as a rule, it was a period in which, as has been said (§ 182), 
the aristocratic principle was recognized in society, in religion, 
in law, in the limitations of suffrage, and in the form of gov- 
ernment ; but it must not be forgotten that underneath there 
was a slow but certain movement toward democracy ; (7) finally, 
it was in that period that slavery gained firm root in the southern 
half of the republic and sowed the seeds of that gigantic war 
which, in the end, not only gave the country a " new birth of free- 
dom " but led to the reconstruction of the Union on a basis far 
more solid and sure than that on which it rested before. 



IV 

THE REVOLUTION/ THE CONSTITUTION ^ 

(1763-17S9) 

For authorities for this chapter, see footnotes and the classified 
list of books in the Appendix, page xxiv 

185. The accession and policy of George III. The accession 
of George III (1760) produced a great change in political affairs 
both in England and in the colonies. The new sovereign was 
well-meaning, patriotic, and conscientious, but narrow-minded, 
obstinate, and subject to attacks of mental derangement. When 
he came to the throne he found the government in the hands of 
a few great Whig families. George was determined to be king in 
fact as well as in name. He resolved to break down the power 
of the old Whig party, to raise up a body of men in Parliament, 
who as the " king's friends " would vote as he should direct, and 

1 On the Revolution, see Winsor's America, VI, ch. i, et seq. ; Hart's Formation 
of the Union, ch. iii, iv; Sloane's The French War and the Revolution, ch. x-xxx; 
Summary of Grievances in the Declaration of Independence, Trevelyan's American 
Revolution ; Johns Hopkins University Studies, X, No. xi ; Franklin's Causes of 
American Discontent; Bancroft's United States; Hart's American History told by 
Contemporaries, II, Nos. 130-220; Hildreth's United States, III-IV ; Frothingham's 
Rise of the Republic ; Lecky's American Revolution (Woodburn) ; Fiske's Amer- 
ican Revolution ; May's Constitutional History of England, ch. i, xvii ; Macdonald's 
Select Charters, etc., and Select Documents. 

2 On the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, see Winsor's America, 
VII, ch. iii-iv; Schouler's United States, I, ch. i-ii ; McMaster's United States, 
I, 436-502 ; Hart's Formation of the Union, ch. v-vi ; Walker's Making of the 
Nation, ch. i-iv; Elliot's Debates on the Constitution, I, 120-338; The Federalist; 
Gordy's Political Parties in the United States, I, ch. i-vii ; Woodburn's Political 
Parties, ch. i; Thorpe's Constitutional History of the American People, I, ch. ii- 
iv; Von Hoist's Constitutional History of the United States, I, ch. i, ii ; Hart's 
American History told by Contemporaries, III, Nos. 37-41 and 54-75; Fiske's Criti- 
cal Period of American History. 

177 



178 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [17G0- 

he also resolved to make his own arbitrary will supreme not only 
at home but throughout British America. 

That determination was vigorously resisted on both sides of 
the Atlantic. The struggle which ended triumphantly for the 
American patriots was in truth part of the same revolution which 
was fought in England by other patriots in the halls of Parlia- 
ment. In spirit Pitt, Burke, and Fox were the allies of Franklin, 
Adams, and Washington. 

186. The chief cause of the American Revolution ; protest of the 
colonies against direct taxation. We have seen (§§ 70, 102, 127, 
177, 179, 183) that many causes contributed to bring on the 
American Revolution ; the restrictions on trade and manufactures 
(§§ 102, 177) were very prominent among these, but the imme- 
diate cause was the king's determination to impose a tax on the 
colonists without their consent. The declared object of that tax 
was to aid in maintaining a force of ten thousand British troops 
in America for the purpose of preventing an insurrection of the 
conquered Canadian French, and to protect the colonists against 
the western Indians. But the colonists replied that they did 
not stand in need of this protection, since they were now strong 
enough to defend themselves. 

Lord Grenville, the king's prime minister, held that the colonies 
were simply places of trade established for the benefit of Great 
Britain. Adam Smith, in the first edition of his celebrated work on 
political economy (1776), denounced this narrow view as " fit only 
for a nation of shopkeepers." The colonists themselves generally 
made a distinction between external and internal taxation. They 
admitted the right of Great Britain to impose duties on their im- 
ports and to restrict their commerce and their manufactures ; but 
at the same time they positively denied the right of the home 
government to demand money from them without their consent. 

As early as 1624 the Virginia Assembly declared: ''The 
gpvernor shall not lay any taxes . . . upon the colony . . . other- 
wise than by the authority of the General Assembly."^ This, 

1 See Hening's Statutes of Virginia, I, 124. 



1761] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 179 

too, was the attitude of Massachusetts (1646) and of Plymouth 
Colony (1671).^ 

It is true that the charter of Pennsylvania (1681) affirmed that 
Parliament might levy taxes on the people of that colony (§ 139) ; 
but Parliament never had attempted it, and the feeling was that 
no such exercise of power would ever be made. 

In the reign of Queen Anne the New York Assembly (i 7 10) took 
the same decided stand that Virginia had taken in the previous 
century. It voted that " the levying of any moneys upon her 
majesty's subjects of this colony, . . . without consent in General 
Assembly, is a grievance and a violation of the people's property." ^ 
This utterance of New York represented the general spirit of the 
American people when George III came to the throne (1760). 

187. Loyalty of the colonies ; Writs of Assistance ; the " Par- 
sons' Case " ; the Sugar Act. Yet the loyalty of the colonies was 
unquestionable (§ 183). Even Samuel Adams, that fiery apostle 
of independence, declared as late as 1768 that nothing but 
unkind usage could sever the ties which bound America to 
England. 

The first decided symptom of a change of feeling occurred in 
1 76 1. That year the king empowered the customhouse officers 
of Boston and of other American ports to make use of Writs of 
Assistance,^ or general warrants, in searching for smuggled goods. 
A few years later, such writs were decided to be unconstitu- 
tional in England. As if in anticipation of that decision, James 
Otis (17 61) protested against their use in the colonies. In 
the course of his flaming speech Otis vehemently denounced 
" the tyranny of taxation without representation." Nevertheless 
the writs continued in use here to some extent, and they were 
later legalized (1767) by the Townshend Revenue Act (§ 191). 

The next year (1762) Patrick Henry, in his celebrated speech 
in the '^ Parsons' Case," boldly denied the right of the king to 

1 See Bancroft's United States, I, 308 ; Plymouth Laws (1671). 

- See Fisher's Colonial Era, 247. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., Xo. 53. 



l8o THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1762-1765 

set aside a law passed by the Virginia Assembly for the general 
good. These ringing utterances of Otis in the North and of 
Henry in the South showed that both sections of the country 
were equally determined to stand up for their rights. 

In 1764 Parliament passed the Sugar Act (§ 177) and the 
crown appointed officers to enforce it. This roused a vigorous 
resistance in New England, which carried on a large trade with 
the French and Spanish West Indies. 

188. The Stamp Act proposed; effect on the colonies; the act 
passes (1765). Meanwhile Lord Grenville, the king's prime min- 
ister, was maturing a scheme for compelUng the colonies to help 
bear the burden of maintaining a standing army of British soldiers 
in America. His plan was to impose a stamp tax similar to one 
which had been imposed in England. He assumed that Par- 
liament, as the national council, really represented all sections 
of the British Empire, and therefore that it could rightfully levy 
such a tax on the colonies. 

Under this proposed act, stamps varying in value from a half- 
penny to ten pounds were to be affixed or impressed on all 
deeds, wills, policies of insurance, clearance papers for ships, 
on many other legal and business papers, and on periodical pub- 
lications and advertisements. Such a law would execute itself. 
It would make it impossible for the colonists to export pro- 
duce, transfer property, collect debts through the courts, or even 
purchase a newspaper or an almanac without paying this tax, 
and paying it in specie, when specie was often very hard to 
get (§ 177). 

In a conversation with Franklin and other colonial agents then 
in London, Grenville said that he could think of no better way of 
raising the money needed by the British government. "If," said 
he, " you can tell of a better, I will adopt it." Franklin suggested 
that it might be well to ask the colonies to raise the sum needed, 
but admitted that he thought it very doubtful whether the colo- 
nial assemblies would agree as to what proportion each should 
contribute. 




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1765] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION i8l 

Grenville gave the colonies a year to consider the matter ; 
then he called on Parliament to act. Burke raised his voice 
against the measure. He did not question the right of the pro- 
posed action, but he did question its expediency. He said that 
it began to look as though the British government regarded the 
colonists as pack horses made to bear the burden first of unHm- 
ited commercial monopoly and next of unlimited taxation. Pitt 
went further; he boldly denied the right of Parliament to pass 
the proposed law, and declared later that it was a scheme to take 
the colonists' " money out of their pockets without their consent." 

The news of the proposed law roused the Americans to fierce 
indignation. Otis denounced it at a Boston town meeting, and 
the Assembly of New York protested that if taxes should be wrung 
from them against their will, ''life itself would become intolerable." 
But despite all efforts the measure passed in 1765. 

189. Patrick Henry's resolutions; the Stamp- Act Congress. 
Virginia was the first to resent the action of Parliament. Patrick 
Henry introduced (1765) a series of remarkable resolutions in 
the Assembly, in which he declared that no power outside the 
people of the colony had. any right to impose taxes on them. 
The Assembly adopted and recorded the greater part of these 
resolutions.^ 

Before the news of Virginia's defiant action reached the North, 
Massachusetts proposed a Stamp-Act Congress. In October 
(1765) delegates from nine colonies met in New York. The 
Congress drew up a Declaration of Rights.^ That declaration 
showed how fast public opinion was moving. It did not demand 
representation in Parliament, as Otis seems to have done ; on the 
contrary, it afiirmed " that the people of these colonies are not, 
and from their local circumstances cannot be, represented in the 
House of Commons in Great Britain, . . . and that no taxes ever 
have been, or ever can be, constitutionally imposed on them 
except by their respective legislatures." 

1 See Tyler's Patrick Henry, 62, 

2 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No, 59. 



l82 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i7G5-1767 

190. The boycott ; the Sons of Liberty ; Pitt ; repeal of the act. 

The leading merchants of the country proceeded to boycott 
Great Britain by pledging themselves to stop importing English 
goods until the obnoxious act should be repealed. The Sons of 
Liberty in New York and elsewhere took decided action. They 
seized stocks of stamps and burned them, destroyed stamp offices, 
and forced stamp officers to resign. 

When the news of the reception of the Stamp Act reached 
England, Pitt rose from his sick bed to defend the colonists in 
Parliament (§ 188). "I rejoice," said he, "that America has 
resisted." ^ 

Lord Grenville, the prime minister, replied to Pitt and so did 
Lord Mansfield.^ Both contended that Parliament had the con- 
stitutional power to tax the colonies, which, they insisted, were to 
all intents and purposes represented by the House of Commons, 
because that House, they said, acted in the interests of every 
portion of the British Empire. But Grenville had reluctantly 
come to the conclusion that it would be inexpedient to attempt 
to force the people to purchase the hated stamps, and the British 
merchants and manufacturers, fearing that they w^ould lose the 
American market for their goods, besought Parliament to repeal 
the act. This was done (1766) amid great rejoicings in London. 
But in spite of Pitt's vehement protest the '' king's friends " 
(§ 185) accompanied the repeal by the passage of a Declaratory 
Act,^ which expressly affirmed the right of Parliament " to bind 
the colonies in all cases whatsoever." In America the exultation 
of the people over their apparent victory prevented their heeding 
the ominous words of this declaration. 

191. The Townshend Revenue Act and its effects. The next 
year (1767) Charles Townshend induced Parliament to pass 
a revenue act^ which imposed a duty on American imports of 
paints, paper, glass, and tea, and legalized Writs of Assistance 
(§ 187). 

1 See C. K. Adams' Representative British Orations, I, 98, no. 2 Ibid., 105, 150. 
3 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 60. 4 ibid., No. 63. 



1767-1770] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 183 

The colonists generally, except Otis, had conceded the right 
of the English government to impose such duties, but now John 
Dickinson of Pennsylvania rose to remonstrate. He attacked 
the Townshend Act in a masterful series of twelve papers 
entitled " Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania." At the 
same time the Massachusetts Assembly, pushed on by Samuel 
Adams and by Otis, sent a circular letter,^ drafted by Adams, to 
the other colonies, urging them to employ all lawful means to 
resist the collection of the proposed duties. In retaliation the 
English authorities took steps (1769) to have Americans who 
should forcibly resist acts of Parliament carried to England for 
trial.2 

Under the lead of George Washington the planters of Virginia 
resolved to refuse to import goods from Great Britain until the 
Townshend Revenue Act should be repealed. The merchants of 
New York, Boston, and other cities took similar action. The 
result was that all of the Townshend Revenue Act was repealed 
(1770), except the clause levying a trifling duty on tea. 

192 . The Boston Massacre ; Governor Tryon ; the destruction of 
the "Gaspee." In 1766 British troops had been sent to New 
York, but the Assembly refused to obey the English Quartering 
Act,^ which required that the troops should be provided for in 
large measure at public expense. Parliament punished the refusal 
by suspending the Assembly,* and that body remained dissolved 
until a newly elected house complied (1769) with England's 
demands. Meanwhile several regiments of British troops had 
arrived (1768) in Boston. In spite of the protests of the citi- 
zens, this standing army was quartered in the town itself. The 
people believed that the presence of such a force was an open 
violation of their constitutional rights as English subjects. The 
excited state of feeling then existing made collisions between 
the troops and the citizens inevitable. A mob assailed (1770) 
a squad of soldiers in the streets, pelted them with chunks of 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 65. 3 ibid.. No. 58. 

2 See Virginia's Protest, Macdonald's Select Charters, No. 66. ■* Ibid., No. 61. 



l84 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1770-1772 

ice and other missiles, and dared the "lobster backs" to fire. 
Finally, either in retaliation or in self-defense, the redcoats did 
fire, killing and wounding several persons. The soldiers were 
tried for manslaughter ; all of them were acquitted except two, 
who were branded on the hand and then Hberated. To prevent 
further trouble, the British commander ordered the troops to be 
removed from the town to an island in the harbor. 

The next year (17 71) the exactions of Governor Tryon of 
North Carohna provoked an insurrection. The battle of Ala- 
mance followed (§ 137), and the governor hanged a number of 
prisoners of war that he had captured. These men had taken up 
arms to resist unjust taxation, and their memories were cherished 
as those of martyrs to liberty. 

The following year (1772) the British revenue cutter Gaspee, 
while chasing a Providence vessel, ran ashore on the coast of 
Rhode Island. The commander of the Gaspee, in his search for 
smugglers, had shown a zeal which " outran both discretion and 
law." The Rhode Islanders now revenged themselves for his acts 
of violence by burning the cutter. The British government 
ordered the chief justice of the colony to send the offenders to 
England for trial (§ 195), but he refused to obey. 

193. Committees of Correspondence formed. In order to render 
the governors and judges of the royal colonies independent of 
the popular will and dependent on the crown, the king now 
resolved to pay those officers (at least in Massachusetts) out of 
the English treasury. 

Samuel Adams took alarm at this act, which he believed tended 
to convert the government of the province into a "despotism." 
At a town meeting held in Faneuil Hall (1772) he moved the 
appointment of a " Committee of Correspondence " to state " the 
rights of the colonists " " to the several towns and to the world." 
The motion passed ; the statement was sent forth, and soon 
every town in Massachusetts had appointed a similar committee. 
In future it would make little real difference whether the gov- 
ernor permitted the colonial Assembly to meet or not, since the 



1773] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 185 

Committees of Correspondence would always be vigilant in the 
interests of liberty. 

But the influence of these organizations was not confined to 
Massachusetts, for the next spring (1773) Dabney Carr, Patrick 
Henry, and other leading men in Virginia established the " In- 
tercolonial Committee of Correspondence." That organization 
" laid the foundation of the Union." 

194. Attempt to enforce the tea tax ; the Boston '* Tea Party.*' 
Meanwhile the British East India Company, unable to find a 
market for its teas, begged Parliament to permit them to make 
exports free of duty to America, where tea had long been smug- 
gled from Holland. The king refused; he said, "There must 
ahva}'s be one tax to keep up the right, and as such I approve 
of the tea duty." 

The actual duty on the tea (§ 191) was trifling, — only three- 
pence a pound. But the Americans regarded the measure as a 
cunning device for establishing a precedent whereby money could 
be extorted from them for the support of a standing army in the 
colonies. They therefore resolved not to purchase a pound of 
the taxed tea. The citizens of Philadelphia, New York, Boston, 
and Charleston took measures to prevent the landing or sale of 
the " pernicious herb." 

The first tea ships arrived at Boston in the autumn of 1773. 
The people assembled in town meeting and urged Governor 
Hutchinson to order the immediate return of the ships with their 
cargoes. The go\*ernor, as an officer of the crown, refused to 
take such action. 

A mass meeting was held in the Old South Meeting-house to 
consider what final decision should be taken. In the evening a 
message was received from the governor dechning to permit any 
of the tea ships to go back until they were unloaded. Samuel 
Adams then rose and said, "This meeting can do nothing more 
to save the country." His words served as a signal for imme- 
diate action. A war whoop was heard, and a party of citizens 
disguised as Indians and armed with hatchets rushed down to 



l86 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1773-1774 

the wharf, boarded the ships, and breaking open the chests of 
tea emptied their contents into the harbor. The next morning a 
shining bank of tea leaves cast up by the tide on the south shore 
showed how thoroughly the ^' Mohawks " had done their work. 

195. The " four intolerable acts." The news of the destruction 
of the tea created a profound sensation in England. The king 
and Parliament both resolved on inflicting summary punishment 
on the rebellious city. Four penal acts were now passed (1774) 
in rapid succession. First, the Boston Port Act^ removed the 
seat of government to Salem and closed the chief port of Massa- 
chusetts to all commerce until the citizens should pay for the 
tea and declare themselves entirely submissive to the king. 

Secondly, the Regulating Act ^ altered the charter of Massa- 
chusetts so as to deprive the people of a large measure of their 
political rights. It also prohibited the citizens from holding town 
meetings for the discussion of public affairs. 

Thirdly, the Administration of Justice Act^ provided that all 
persons who should be accused of committing murder in main- 
tenance of the cause of king and Parliament (as in the case of 
the British soldiers in the " Boston Massacre ") should be tried 
" in some other of his majesty's colonies or in Great Britain " 
(where, of course, every influence would operate in favor of their 
acquittal). Furthermore, provision was made for a more stringent 
enforcement of the obnoxious Quartering Act (§ 192). 

Fourthly, the Quebec Act* extended the boundaries of the 
Canadian province of Quebec so as to entbrace the territory 
northwest of the Ohio (excepting only such portion as the colo- 
nies could prove they held under royal grants), and virtually 
established the Roman Catholic Church in that vast province. 
The debates in Parliament show that the object of this act was 
to secure the allegiance of the French Catholics in Canada in the 
approaching war and to exclude the offending English colonists 
from making settlements in the West. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 68. 2 ibid., No. 69. 
4 See Hildreth's United States, III, 33- ^ Ibid., No. 70. 



1774] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 187 

The king now temporarily removed Governor Hutchinson 
(May, 1774) and appointed General Gage, commander in chief 
of the British forces on the American continent, governor of 
Massachusetts. 

196. Unity of the colonies ; the First Continental Congress 
(1774). When the news of the passage of the Port Act reached 
Boston, Massachusetts sent an appeal for sympathy and help to 
all of her sister colonies. Paul Revere, mounted on a swift horse, 
started to carry this appeal to New York, but before he arrived 
there a committee of the Sons of Liberty, composed mainly of 
the mechanics and workingmen of that city, had recommended 
the calling of a general or continental congress. South Carolina 
expressed the feeling of the patriots of all the colonies when she 
said, " The whole country must be animated with one great soul, 
and all Americans must resolve to stand by one another, even 
unto death." 

The first American or Continental Congress met in the Car- 
penters' Hall at Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774. It was 
composed of fifty-five delegates, representing all the colonies 
except Georgia, where the Tory governor contrived to block the 
way. 

The Congress, while cheerfully acknowledging His Majesty 
George the Third to be their " rightful sovereign," adopted (Octo- 
ber 14, 1774) a Declaration of Colonial Rights.-^ The decla- 
ration admitted the authority of Parliament to enact measures for 
the regulation of trade for the mutual advantage of the mother- 
country and of the colonies, but it affirmed (i) that inasmuch as 
the colonists could not " properly be represented in the British 
Parliament," therefore the colonial legislatures were entitled to 
make all local laws and levy all taxes ; (2) that the colonists 
were entitled to the common law of England, and especially to 
the inestimable privilege of trial by jury, and that they had the 
right to hold public meetings for the consideration of grievances 
and to petition the king ; (3) they protested against the keeping 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 72. 



1 88 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i775 

of a standing army in the colonies without their consent; (4) 
finally, they condemned eleven acts of Parliament, including the 
tax on tea and the " four intolerable acts " (§ 195), and declared 
that Americans would never submit to them. 

Congress, in its "olive-branch petition,"^ humbly besought the 
king " as the loving father " of his " whole people " to relieve their 
wrongs. But before sending that petition Congress signed the arti- 
cles of an '' American Association." ^ Those articles pledged the 
colonies they represented not to import or consume British goods, 
and not to export any merchandise or products of the colonies to 
Great Britain unless their wrongs should be redressed. 

In the action of the American people thus far we may trace 
three progressive steps: (i) Otis' claim (1761), — no direct taxa- 
tion without representation in Parliament (§ 187); (2) Declara- 
tion of the Stamp- Act Congress (i 765), — no direct taxation except 
by the colonial assemblies (§ 189) ; (3) Declaration of the First 
Continental Congress (1774), — no legislation whatever (save in 
regard to trade and commerce for mutual advantage) except by 
the colonial assemblies. 

197. Parliament retaliates; action of Massachusetts; General 
Gage's expedition. When Parliament met (1775), Pitt, now Lord 
Chatham, besought that body to repeal the "four intolerable 
acts." He said, "You will repeal them, I stake my reputation 
on it, that you will in the end repeal them." ' He was right ; but 
the repeal came too late. Burke made his famous speech urging 
conciliation,* and Lord North, then prime minister, offered a reso- 
lution^ to that effect, but faUing far short of Burke's demands, 
which Parliament adopted. Congress declared^ Lord North's 
offer "unreasonable," because it did not renounce "the pretended 
right to tax us," but simply changed the mode of taxation. On 
the other hand, in retaliation for the adoption by Congress of 
the articles of the "American Association" (§ 196), Parliament 

1 See Bancroft's United States, IV, 76. 2 ibid.. No. Ti>' 

4 Adams' British Orations, I, 182. 3 ibid., IV., 103. 

5 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 74. 6 ibid., No. 78. 



1775] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 189 

had already passed a bill ^ which cut off the colonies, that had 
agreed to the articles, from foreign trade, and prohibited them 
from taking any part in the fisheries of Newfoundland. Thus 
at one blow the chief industry of New England and the most 
important commerce not only of New England but of the other 
offending colonies were paralyzed. 

Later (1775), Parliament enacted a law prohibiting all trade 
and intercourse with America.^ 

While the First Continental Congress was sitting, Governor 
Gage suspended the Assembly of Massachusetts. That body at 
once resolved itself into a Provincial Congress, adjourned to Con- 
cord (1774), and there organized, choosing John Hancock for 
president. This Provincial Congress appointed a Committee of 
Safety to provide for the defense of the colony. It furthermore 
authorized the enrollment of 12,000 minutemen, who were to 
hold themselves ready to meet any emergency. The other colo- 
nies organized similar provincial congresses or conventions, and 
prepared to maintain their rights by force of arms if necessary. 

Patrick Henry urged the Virginia convention to prepare for 
the inevitable conflict : " We must fight ! " said he ; "I repeat it, 
sir, we must fight ! " Virginia heeded the advice, and at once 
began to arm. General Gage attempted to seize some cannon 
at Salem, but failed. Hearing that the Massachusetts Committee 
of Safety had collected cannon and military stores at Concord, 
about twenty miles from Boston, he sent out a secret expedition 
of eight hundred troops to destroy them. The commander was 
ordered to stop at Lexington on his way to Concord and seize 
those "arch-rebels," Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were 
suspected of being in the village, — as in fact they were. 

198. British expedition to Lexington and Concord ; beginning 
of the siege of Boston. Paul Revere, mounting a fleet horse, rode 
to Lexington in advance of the British, rousing the country as 
he passed with his midnight cry, "The regulars are coming!" 
Adams and Hancock, warned in time, escaped across the fields. 
1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 75. 2 ibid., No. 80. 



IQO 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1775 



)^^n 



Captain John Parker of Lexington had gathered a company of 
sixty or seventy men on the village green to meet the British. 
" Don't fire first," said he, '' but if they want war let it begin here." 
Just before daybreak (April 19, i775) the regulars appeared. 
" Disperse, ye rebels ! " shouted Pitcairn, the British commander. 
The Americans did not move; they were "too few to resist, 
too brave to fly." " Fire ! " cried Pitcairn. Seven patriots fell. 
Then Parker ordered his men to leave the field ; as they did so 
they fired a few scattering shots at the enemy. 

Proceeding to Concord the regulars destroyed such military 
stores as they could find. At Concord bridge the patriots met 

the British ; a fight ensued and 
several fell on each side. It 
was the opening battle of the 
Revolution. 

Then the British began the 
return march to Boston ; the en- 
raged farmers pursued them, 
firing from behind every bush, 
fence, and tree. An English 
ofiicer says that the British fled 
before the Americans like sheep. 
At Lexington the flying regulars 
were reenforced by a thousand fresh troops sent out by Gage. 
By the time they reached Charlestown they had lost nearly three 
hundred of their number. 

All the following night minutemen were pouring into Cam- 
bridge. Every New England colony speedily began to raise and 
send men under such leaders as Putnam, Stark, Arnold, and 
Greene ; in all, an army of about sixteen thousand was gathered. 
They surrounded Boston on the land side, and General Gage, 
with his force of less than four thousand troops, found himself 
effectually "bottled up." 

199. Capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point; meeting of the 
Second Continental Congress (1775). In order to get a supply of 




1775] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 191 

arms and powder an expedition was sent to capture Fort Ticon- 
deroga, which controlled the waterway between New York and 
Canada. This expedition, led by Ethan Allen, was made up of 
" Green Mountain Boys " with some volunteers from Connecticut 
and western Massachusetts. 

At sunrise (May 10, 1775) Allen surprised the sentinel at one 
of the gates of the fort and rushed in just as the commander was 
getting out of bed. He ordered the astonished officer to surren- 
der " in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Con- 
gress." The exultant patriots captured a large number of cannon 
and small arms and a quantity of ammunition. The next day 
Seth Warner of Bennington, who had accompanied Allen, took 
the British works at Crown Point. 

A few hours after we had obtained possession of Ticonderoga, 
the Continental Congress — John Hancock, president — met 
(May 10, 1775) in the old statehouse at Philadelphia. This 
second Congress remained, in name at least, in perpetual session 
until it was succeeded by the Congress of the Confederation 
nearly six years later (March, 1781). 

200. Gage's proclamation ; Washington made commander in 
chief. Gage was now (May 25, 1775) reenforced by troops brought 
to Boston by Generals Burgoyne, Clinton, and Howe. With ten 
thousand regulars under his command, he felt himself able to take 
a more decided stand. He issued a proclamation (June 12, 1775) 
threatening to hang as rebels and traitors all who continued to 
resist His Majesty's government. He closed by offering pardon 
to those who should forthwith '' lay down their arms . . . except- 
ing only . . . Samuel Adams and John Hancock." 

A few days later (June 15, 1775), Congress chose George 
Washington to be commander in chief of *' all the Continental 
forces raised, or to be raised, for the defense of American liberty." 
History attests the wisdom of that choice : '' No nobler figure 
ever stood in the forefront of a nation's life." 

201. The opposing armies in the Revolution. According to the 
official report of General Knox, the whole number of men in the 



192 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1775-1783 

Continental army during the eight years of the war (17 75-1 783) 
was about 252,000, and the whole number of militia about 
192,000. This would make the total enlistments for the war 
nearly 444,000, drawn from a white population which in 1775 
did not exceed 2,500,000. 

The average yearly strength of the Continental army was 
31,500 men, but oftentimes this strength was on paper only, and 
the actual number present for duty was frequently not more than 
about 15,000, while shortly after Washington's retreat across the 
Delaware his force shrank to less than 3000. The militia force 
was subject to great and sudden fluctuations, which make trust- 
worthy estimates well-nigh impossible. 

The enlistments in the Continental army were for terms often 
not exceeding a few months, and seldom, if ever, for more than 
three years. Congress, owing to its own mismanagement, found 
it impossible to get recruits for the entire war. The difficulty of 
feeding, clothing, arming, and paying the men greatly aggravated 
this evil. Furthermore, sickness thinned the ranks, and in the 
" dark days of the Revolution " hardships and privations drove 
so many to leave the army that Washington wrote (June, 1777), 
" Our numbers diminish more by desertion than they increase by 
enlistments." But if in the long contest many fainted and fell 
by the wayside, others fought nobly to the end, and in hunger, 
cold, poverty, and the pangs of death proved themselves unflinch- 
ingly true to their country, their leader, and their flag. 

A large number of European officers offered their services to 
Congress. Out of twenty-nine major generals in the Revolutionary 
army more than one third were foreigners. A good many of these 
men did excellent service, but there were some ''black sheep" 
among them, like Conway and Charles Lee. 

The most noted engineer among the first foreign volunteers 
was Kosciusko, a Polish military officer (1776). He planned 
the greater part of the fortifications at West Point. Duportail, 
who came later (1777), constructed the siege works at Yorktown. 
Count Pulaski, a countryman of Kosciusko's, fought bravely under 



1775-1783] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 193 

Washington and gave his life for the republic at the siege of 
Savannah (1779). 

The two best known foreign officers in the American army were 
Lafayette and Steuben. Lafayette, accompanied by De Kalb, 
came (1777) when he was but nineteen. He not only served 
without pay, but spent large sums of his own money in clothing 
and providing for the men who fought under him. Baron Steu- 
ben was noted as a military organizer and disciplinarian. He 
drilled the half-fed, half-clothed patriots of the Continental army 
with German thoroughness until they fought with the coolness 
and efficiency of European veterans. 

The total number of the British army cannot be very accu- 
rately determined, but it probably seldom exceeded thirty-five 
thousand men. Less than half of them were English subjects. 
The war in the outset was unpopular in England, and George HI 
was reduced " to the military necessity " of hiring troops from 
the Prince of Hesse-Cassel and other petty German states. 
These *' Hessians," as they were called, had no choice ; they 
were forced to go to America to shoot and to be shot at simply 
because their masters at home got so much a head for them. 

202. The American navy and privateers. Before the close of 
1776 Congress had launched a navy of thirteen small but effec- 
tive vessels, which were under the command of " Admiral " Esek 
Hopkins of Rhode Island. This little navy did excellent service 
and captured a large number of English merchantmen, thereby 
obtaining much-needed military supplies for the army. But in 
two years eight of our men of war had been taken by the enemy, 
and by 1781 all of the remaining vessels had been captured or 
destroyed. 

Congress had authorized privateering, and the Atlantic soon 
swarmed with small vessels fitted out in New England and the 
middle states. The number of Americans engaged in this war- 
fare on the sea probably outnumbered the entire Continental 
army. In the course of a single year (1776) they took nearly 
three hundred and fifty vessels, worth, with their cargoes, at least 



194 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1775-1783 

$5,000,000, and a complete record of prizes captured would show 
a total amounting in value to many millions more. 

203. The Loyalists or Tories.^ Before the outbreak of the Revo- 
lution all or very nearly all of the colonists were loyal to the king. 
The agitation of the Stamp Act caused a certain amount of divi- 
sion, but even those who were most determined in their resistance 
to that act did not think for a moment of renouncing their alle- 
giance to the crown. 

Later, after many of the colonists had decided to take up arms 
in defense of their rights, they still proclaimed themselves subjects 
of the king ; but after independence was declared, a sharp and 
decided separation necessarily took place between the patriots 
or Whigs, who supported that declaration, and the Loyalists or 
Tories, who opposed it. 

It is impossible to say with accuracy what proportion of the 
people ranged, themselves openly or secretly on the Tory side. 
The Loyalists themselves claimed that they were in the majority 
and that the war was carried through by a small but energetic 
minority who had got the control. John Adams believed that at 
least one third of the population of the colonies were Tories. 

A considerable percentage of them were men ef property and 
high social standing. Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts was 
a good representative of this class. These men were thoroughly 
patriotic, but they clung to union with the mother-country, while 
the patriotism of the Whigs centered in the American Republic. 
One class was as sincere, as earnest, and as self-sacrificing as the 
other. 

The largest number of Tories was to be found perhaps in the 
colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, and Georgia. 
Virginia and New England were the strongholds of the Whigs. 

In the Carolinas the parties were so evenly divided that it gave 
the Revolution there many of the most cruel characteristics of a 
civil war, in which each party bent all its energies to the destruc- 
tion of the other. In Georgia the Tories were so strong that 
1 See Winsor's America, VII, 185 ; American Historical Review, I, 24. 



1775-1783] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 195 

they were planning to detach that colony from the general move- 
ment of the Revolution, and might perhaps have succeeded if 
Cornwallis had not been defeated at Yorktown. 

At the North the Loyalists were often very roughly handled 
by excited Sons of Liberty, who thought that tar and feathers 
fitted them better than anything else. The state authorities 
(1776) banished the more obstinate Tories and confiscated their 
property, in some cases threatening them with imprisonment or 
death if they returned. Several thousand of the extreme Tories 
enlisted on the British side. With their Indian allies they rav- 
aged parts of New York and Pennsylvania. 

Eventually great numbers of Loyalists, probably more than a 
hundred thousand in all, were forced to leave the United States. 
Those going from the North generally took refuge in Nova Scotia 
and Canada, while those who left the southern states settled in 
the Bahamas and West Indies. In many cases they left valuable 
estates; men of wealth and high social standing fled with their 
families with nothing to depend upon but British army rations and 
the hope of receiving aid from the king or Parliament. After the 
war was over Parliament voted them an indemnity of several mil- 
lions of pounds, and tried, but without success, to induce the 
United States to restore their confiscated estates. 

204. Finances of the Revolution. The total amount of hard 
money in the colonies at the beginning of the Revolution has 
been roughly estimated at ^6,000,000. The average annual 
expenses of the war were about $20,000,000 ; hence the specie 
on hand, could the whole of it have been used, would not have 
met the demands for more than a few months. 

The country looked to Congress for help; but Congress had 
neither money nor credit — for what foreign government or for- 
eign capitalist would loan anything to thirteen rebellious states ? 
Congress might indeed have levied a tax on the colonies, but 
did not dare take that step for fear of insurrection. In this 
dilemma it determined to call the printing press to its aid and 
strike off a few millions of paper money. 



196 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1775-1783 

It began (1775) with a modest issue of ^2,000,000; this was 
quickly used up and the cry came for more. More followed, until 
finally the bills known as "Continental currency" were issued 
by the wagonload. Long before the close of the war the total 
amount so issued had reached over ^240,000,000. There it 
stopped, for the single reason that Congress found it was useless 
to print any more worthless promises to pay.^ 

By the beginning of 1777 many people refused to take the Con- 
tinental currency on a par with silver. Congress resolved that 
they should take it, and declared all who declined to do so " ene- 
mies " of the United States. The result was that merchants who 
refused to sell their goods for paper money sometimes had part 
of their stock seized or their shops shut up. A still more heroic 
method of treatment was adopted when Congress empowered 
Washington to arrest and imprison those business men who were 
regarded as foes to our public credit. 

Congress next tried the experiment of endeavoring to fix the 
prices at which all provisions must be sold, and also to decide 
what wages in Continental money should be paid for a day's work. 
This proved a failure, and so did the scheme of calling on the 
states for " requisitions," or money to carry on the war. Finally, 
in order to get food for the army, Washington was authorized to 
seize supplies of beef, pork, flour, and other necessaries, and to 
give the owners a receipt of seizure, which would be a claim for 
payment. This plan created so much friction that it had to be 
given up like the others. 

Fortunately, Burgoyne's surrender gave us a certain standing 
in Europe, and we obtained loans and gifts, chiefly from France, 
amounting in the aggregate to about '^12,000,000. Then again 
our little navy and our numerous privateers captured some large 
supplies of military clothing and arms from English transports. 
The French army and navy stationed at Newport paid for all the 
supplies they purchased here in hard money ; this made it pos- 
sible for Robert Morris to borrow specie in aid of our army. 
1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 34-48. 



1775-] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 197 

By the spring of 1780 a government paper dollar would pass 
for only two or three cents. Creditors fled when they saw 
debtors coming prepared to pay up old scores with bundles of 
Continental bills, and even Washington, who made it a duty 
to cheerfully take the paper money for debts contracted during 
the period of depression, wrote that he would not take the stuff 
in settlement of contracts made before the war. 

A little later, the bills ceased to circulate at all. Hence- 
forward no one would touch them, and when a man wished to 
express his utter contempt for a thing, he said emphatically, 
" It 's not worth a Continental ! " 

205. The battle of Bunker Hill (1775). While Congress was 
engaged in preparing for war, General Gage resolved to seize the 
heights of Bunker Hill, in Charlestown, overlooking Boston. 

But before Gage got ready to move, Colonel William Prescott, 
with a force of about 1200 men, later increased to 1500, was 
on his way to the hill. The Americans worked all night, and 
when the sun rose on the seventeenth of June (1775), Gage 
was astonished to see Colonel Prescott leisurely walking on the 
bank of earth which his men had thrown up on the crest of 
the hill. 

"Will he fight?" asked Gage of a man who knew Prescott 
well. "He will fight," was the answer, "as long as a drop of 
blood remains in his veins." "Then," said the British com- 
mander, " the works must be carried." 

In the afternoon Howe, with about 3000 veteran troops, led 
the attack. The day was intensely hot, and the British had to 
charge up a steep slope covered with tall grass and divided into 
fields by stone walls and fences. 

Powder was scarce with the Americans and their officers 
ordered them not to waste it. " Don't one of you fire," said 
Putnam, "until you see the white of their eyes." The men 
obeyed orders, and when they did fire it was with terrible effect. 
The British fell back, rallied, made a second attack, and were 
again repulsed. 



198 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1775-1776 

After a long delay Howe made a third assault up the fatal 
hill. This time he succeeded. Firing their last round of ammu- 
nition, but still fighting desperately with the butt ends of their 
muskets, Prescott's little army slowly retreated. 

They were driven from their works, not because they had 
been defeated, but because they no longer had powder and ball 
to keep up the battle. It was a costly success for the British, 
since in an hour and a half they had lost more than a thousand 
men; our loss was likewise very heavy, and among those who 
fell was the lamented Warren. 

The king, disappointed with Gage's management of the war, 
recalled him and made General Howe (§ 200) commander in 
chief of the British forces in America. Howe was a brave officer, 
but he was half-hearted in the contest. He hoped to negotiate 
a peace and reunite the mother-country and the colonies more 
firmly than ever. 

206. Washington takes command of the Continental army ; action 
of Congress ; expedition against Canada. Washington reached Cam- 
bridge early in July (1775), and at once took command of the 
Continental army. On New Year's Day (1776) he raised the flag 
of the united British American colonies ; — it consisted of the 
British flag with thirteen stripes added, one for each colony. 

In the meantime Congress had put forth a Declaration of the 
Causes and Necessity of taking up Arms ^ (July 6, 1775), but 
expressly added, "We have not raised armies with ambitious 
designs of separating from Great Britain and establishing inde- 
pendent states." Two days later. Congress sent a petition to 
the king ^ beseeching him for relief and wishing him a long and 
prosperous reign. His only reply was a proclamation ^ declaring 
the colonies in a state of open rebellion. 

While in camp at Cambridge Washington learned that Carle- 
ton, the commander of the British force in Canada, was plan- 
ning a descent into New York, where he hoped to get the help of 
the Tories or Loyalists (§ 203) and of the Six Nations (§ 136). 

1 See Macdonald's Select Charters, etc., No. 76. 2 ibid., No. ']']. 3 Ibid., No. 79. 



1775-1776] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 199 

To offset that movement General Schuyler, aided by General 
Montgomery, was ordered to make an attack on Montreal. The 
expedition started in the autumn (1775) from Fort Ticonderoga, 
but Schuyler fell sick and the command devolved on Mont- 
gomery. He descended Lake Champlain, took Fort Chambly, 
St. John, and Montreal. He also captured a large quantity of 
ammunition, part of which he sent to Cambridge, much to the 
delight of Israel Putnam, whose constant cry had been, " Ye 
gods, give us powder ! " 

Benedict Arnold had been sent (1775) with a small force from 
Massachusetts to cross the pathless wilderness of Maine to join 
Montgomery and make a combined attack on Quebec. Before 
Arnold reached Canada he had lost more than a third of his men 
from sickness, exhaustion, and desertion. At length, after eight 
weeks of hardship and suffering, the brave commander with his 
sadly diminished little army came in sight of Quebec. There 
was snow on the ground and the weather was bitterly cold. His 
men were half-naked, starving, and barefooted, for their clothes 
had been torn off by the thorn bushes, and in the agonies of 
hunger they had devoured even their moccasins. 

On the last day of 1775 Montgomery and Arnold attempted 
with their feeble forces to storm " the strongest city in America." 
Montgomery was killed at the head of his troops and Arnold 
was severely wounded ; but unfortunately for himself and for 
his country, his wound did not prove fatal ; had it done so his 
memory would have been revered as that of a valiant soldier 
and true patriot. The assault on Quebec proved a failure. In 
the following summer our men were driven out of Canada and 
forced to retreat to Crown Point on Lake Champlain. 

207. Washington drives the British out of Boston (1776) ; 
attack on the Carolinas. General Knox had dragged, by the aid 
of ox teams and sleds, more than forty cannon all the way from 
the captured fort at Ticonderoga (§ 199) to Cambridge. Now 
that Washington had both powder and hea\7 gims. he was deter- 
mined to force Howe to give up Boston or fight. 



200 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1776 

Early in March (1776) the American commander, by a sudden 
night movement, seized Dorchester Heights (now South Boston), 
overlooking Boston on the south. Rufus Putnam erected the 
works and got the cannon in position. Washington now held 
both the British army and the British fleet at his mercy. As 
Howe did not care '' to pay a Bunker Hill price " for Dorchester 
Heights, he decided to give up the town. On March 17 (1776) 
the British sailed for Halifax, taking with them more than a 
thousand Tories (§ 203). 

Washington entered Boston on the following day. The enemy 
had left it never to return. Believing that Howe would endeavor 
to strike his next blow at New York, Washington now prepared 
to transfer the Continental army to that point. 

But before Howe evacuated Boston he sent General Clinton 
(§ 200) by sea to make an attack on North Carolina. There 
Sir Peter Parker, with a fleet from Great Britain, bringing a land 
force under Lord Cornwallis, was to join him. Clinton expected 
that the Tories of North Carolina (§ 203) would aid him in con- 
quering the colony ; but the North Carolina patriots rose, and 
attacking the Loyalists at Moore's Creek (February 27, 1776) 
completely routed them. 

This defeat of his Tory allies changed Clinton's plans, and 
Parker's fleet having arrived, he sailed south to attack Charleston. 
Charleston harbor was defended by a fort of palmetto logs on 
Sullivan's Island. Colonel Moultrie, with the help of such 
heroes as Sergeant Jasper, held the fort and defended it with 
such desperate courage that the British were forced to retire 
with heavy loss. 

The patriots of Georgia — a colony where the Tories were 
numerous — were one in spirit with the patriots of the Carolinas. 
They said, '^ Britain may destroy our towns, but we can retire 
to the back country and tire her out." 

208. The war for colonial rights becomes a war for national 
independence; ''Common Sense." Up to the beginning of 1776 
the Americans had been fighting in defense of their rights as 



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1776] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 201 

loyal subjects of George IIL Their object was not to overthrow 
the legitimate authority of the king but simply, as Congress 
declared, to resist " the claim and exercise of unconstitutional 
powers to which neither the crown nor Parliament were ever 
entitled." 

If they were rebels, then the leading members of Parliament 
— such men as Burke, Pitt, and Fox, who were battling for 
political reform in England — were also rebels. The main dif- 
ference was that the Americans fought with guns because they 
had no parliamentary votes, while the Whigs in Parliament fought 
with votes because they had no need of guns. 

But after the opening of 1776 there were unmistakable signs 
that men's minds were rapidly moving toward independence. 
The positive refusal of the king to grant any measure of redress 
gave great impetus to this movement. 

Early in January (1776) Thomas Paine published his remark- 
able pamphlet entitled " Common Sense." " Nothing," said he, 
" can settle our affairs so expeditiously as an open and deter- 
mined declaration for independence." These vigorous words 
gave expression to the thoughts of thousands. Edition after edi- 
tion of the pamphlet was called for. It converted multitudes to 
the belief that the safety and welfare of America demanded a full 
and final separation from the mother-country. 

A few months later, the news came that the king had resolved 
to hire a large body of German troops to help put down the 
American rebellion (§ 201). Then Congress resolved that " every 
kind of authority under the said crown should be totally sup- 
pressed." 

209. The Declaration of Independence; Articles of Confedera- 
tion. The cHmax was reached on June 7 (1776), when Richard 
Henry Lee of Virginia offered the following resolution in Con- 
gress : " Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent States." John Adams of 
Massachusetts seconded the resolution. This momentous meas- 
ure was debated for two days. John Adams, Lee, and other 



202 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1776 

prominent men urged its immediate adoption ; John Dickinson, 
Edward Rutledge, and other members from six of the middle 
and southern colonies objected. They were stanch patriots, but 
they thought that the resolution was untimely and unwise. Jeffer- 
son says that the debate showed " that the colonies of New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Caro- 
lina were not yet matured for falHng from the parent stem," and 
that " it was thought most prudent to wait a while for them." 

Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, 
Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were appointed a com- 
mittee to draft a Declaration of Independence. A second com- 
mittee, consisting of one from each colony except New Jersey, 
was chosen to report Articles of Confederation^ for the govern- 
ment of the new republic. 

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence ^ was agreed 
to, and was then signed by John Hancock, president of Con- 
gress. The members of Congress signed it on August 2. The 
Declaration not only marked the birth of the United States as 
a nation, but it made the natural rights of man its corner stone. 

The Americans had not sought separation . from the mother- 
country. George III and his "friends" (§ 185) forced them to 
take the decisive step. The Declaration stated the reasons for 
this action in an indictment of the king containing twenty-seven 
counts.^ 

Washington ordered the Declaration to be read to every bri- 
gade of the Continental army in and around New York City. That 
night the gilded lead statue of George III which stood on Bowl- 
ing Green was pulled down to be run into bullets. Henceforth 
the Americans were determined to prosecute the war until Great 
Britain should acknowledge them a separate and independent 
people. 

210. The British forces at New York; offers of pardon; battle 
of Long Island. When General Howe arrived with his army from 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 2. 2 ibid., No. i. 

3 See Declaration of Independence, Appendix, ii, iii. 



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SIGNATURES TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCI 



1776] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 203 

Halifax (§ 207), he found Washington in possession of New York 
City and Brooklyn ; he therefore encamped on Staten Island. 
General Howe's brother, Admiral Howe, arrived soon afterward 
with a fleet bringing heavy reenforcements. In accordance with 
instructions from the British government, the Howes issued a cir- 
cular offering to receive the submission of all rebels who should 
throw themselves on the king's mercy. This second attempt at 
conciliation on the part of Great Britain failed as completely 
as Lord North's had done the year before (§197). As Wash- 
ington said, the Americans felt that they were simply defending 
their rights, and " having committed no fault, they needed no 
pardon." 

It was now evident that the war must go on. Washington's 
entire force consisted of less than eighteen thousand men, of 
whom only about eleven thousand reported for duty. These raw 
recruits were poorly armed ; some, in fact, had no arms at all, 
and had never handled any weapon more dangerous than a pitch- 
fork. On the other hand, Howe commanded a body of veterans 
splendidly equipped, and nearly thirty-two thousand strong. 

The English commander's plan of campaign was based on the 
maxim, " Divide to conquer." His object was to get possession 
of the Hudson. This would give the British control of the water- 
way to Canada and would effectually cut off New England from 
the middle and southern states. 

Washington, fully alive to this danger, was determined to hold 
New York and maintain the military unity of the colonies. To 
prevent the enemy from ascending the Hudson he had erected 
Fort Washington on the upper part of the island of New York, 
with Fort Lee on the opposite shore. General Greene was 
ordered to hold the important position of Brooklyn Heights, com- 
manding New York on the south. Unfortunately, Greene fell 
sick and Washington was obliged to give the command to Gen- 
eral Putnam, who had never examined the defenses on Long 
Island. Putnam's entire force was only eight thousand men. 
Howe saw that if he could get possession of Brooklyn Heights, 



204 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [me 

he could drive Washington out of New York, just as Washington, 
after he got possession of Dorchester Heights, had driven him 
(§ 207) out of Boston. 

The English commander sent twenty thousand regulars to dis- 
lodge Putnam. The latter, while holding his intrenchments, 
could spare only four thousand to oppose the enemy's advance. 
The odds were five to one in favor of the British ; hence they 
easily won the battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776). 

During the progress of the battle Washington crossed over 
from New York to Brooklyn Heights with reenforcements. He 
decided that retreat was the only prudent course. Taking ad- 
vantage of a heavy fog, which rested on Long Island but did 
not touch the opposite shore, he succeeded in getting the entire 
army safely across to New York. When the sun appeared, Howe 
stretched out his hand to take the '' nest of rebels," but found to 
his disgust that the nest was empty. 

211. Washington driven out of New York ; loss of Forts Wash- 
ington and Lee. A few weeks later (September, 1776), Howe 
landed a strong body of troops in New York. He stopped to 
taste some of Mrs. Robert Murray's old Madeira, and so just 
missed the chance of capturing Putnam's division. While the 
gallant British commander was enjoying the society of that patri- 
otic lady and her charming daughter, Putnam hastily retreated to 
Harlem and joined Washington. Mrs. Murray had " saved the 
American army." 

Howe gradually pushed the Americans as far north as North- 
castle. Washington then crossed over to New Jersey, leaving 
General Charles Lee with seventy-five hundred men to defend 
Northcastle, and sending Heath with three thousand men to hold 
the Highlands at West Point. 

Howe obtained plans of Fort Washington (then under com- 
mand of General Greene) from a traitor within its walls. The 
British general surprised and took the works (November 16, 
1776). Washington witnessed the battle from the west bank of 
the Hudson and wept like a child, it is said, when he saw his men 



TO ALL BRAVE, HEALTHY, ABLE BODIED. AND WELL 
DISPOSED YOUNG MEN 

IN THIS NEIGHBOUKHOOD. WHO HAVE ANY INCLINATION TO JOIN THE TROOPS 
NOW RAISING UNDER 

GENER.\L WASHINGTON, 

FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE 

tlBERTIES AND INDEPENDENCE 

OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Agllnft iSe honiU Jetgni of foreign enemies, 

TAKE'NOTICE, 




THAT Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Spotswood in 
Middlesex county, attendance will be given by Lieutenant Reatting with his music 
and recruiting party of company in Major Shute's Battalion of the nth regiment 
of infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Ogden, for the purpose of 
receiving the enrollment of such youth of spirit, as may be willing to enter into 
this HONOURABLE service. 

The ENCOURAGEMENT at this time, to enlist, is truly liberal and generous, 
namely, a bounty of TWELVE dollars, an annual and fully sufficient supply of 
good and handsome cloathing, a daily allowance of a large and ample ration of 
provisions, together with SIXTY dollars a year in GOLD and SILVER money 
on account of pay, the whole of which the soldier may lay up for himself and 
friends, as all articles proper for his subsistance and comfort are provided by law, 
without any expence to him. 

Those who may favour this recruiting party with their attendance as above, will 
have an opportunity of hearing and seeing in a more particular manner, the great 
advantages which these brave men will have, who shall embrace this opportunity 
of spending a few happy years in viewing the diflferent parts of this beautiful conti- 
nent, in the honourable and truly respectable character of a soldier, after which, 
he may, if he pleases return home to his friends, with his pockets FULL of money 
and his head COVERED with laurels 

GOD SAVE THE UNITED STATES 



1776] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 205 

bayoneted by the Hessians while begging for quarter. Now that 
Fort Washington was taken, Fort Lee, which Greene held, was 
as useless as one half of a pair of shears without the other half. 
Before he could evacuate it he was surprised, and barely managed 
to escape. 

212. The retreat across New Jersey (November 21 to December 
8, 1776) ; Washington crosses the Delaware. Washington at once 
(November 21, 1776) began his famous retreat across New Jersey. 
If worst came to worst, he might hope by crossing the Delaware 
to save his army and also to save Philadelphia. He had ordered 
Lee (§201) to join him without delay, but that false-hearted 
officer deliberately disobeyed. He was plotting to get the chief 
command for himself. 

Lord Comwallis (§ 207) pursued Washington's little army so 
closely that the British would sometimes be entering a town at 
one end just as the Americans were leaving it at the other ; but 
by rapid marching and by destroying bridges Washington managed 
to keep out of the enemy's clutches. 

On December 8 (1776) Washington reached Trenton. He 
seized every boat and scow on the river from Philadelphia for 
seventy miles upward, and then crossed the Delaware. Corn- 
wallis came up to the bank of the river just in time to see the 
last boat load of patriots push off from the shore. 

A few days later, Lee was captured in New Jersey. He had 
moved there with his army, but with no intention, as he later 
admitted, of joining Washington. Lee's force managed to escape 
the British and unite with Washington ; but many of the new- 
comers were " fit only for the hospital." 

213. Victory at Trenton ; Robert Morris ; victory at Princeton. 
While Cornwallis, who had moved to Princeton, was waiting 
for an opportunity to cross the river and attack Philadelphia, he 
left Colonel Rahl with a force of Hessians to hold Trenton. On 
Christmas night (1776) Washington, with less than twenty-five 
hundred men, secretly recrossed the Delaware, then full of float- 
ing ice, and fell on the enemy early in the morning at Trenton, 



206 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1776-1777 

Rahl had not slept off the effects of his numerous bowls of Christ- 
mas punch, and Washington completely surprised him, capturing 
between nine hundred and a thousand prisoners, besides large 
quantities of arms and ammunition. 

It was a little battle, but it was a great victory because it had 
great results. It kindled new hope in the hearts of dispirited 
and despairing patriots, and it completely upset Howe's plans. 

The only drawback to the joy of the American commander 
was the pressing need of money, of hard cash (§ 204), not 
depreciated or worthless Continental bills, to secure new enlist- 
ments. In this emergency Washington wrote to his friend Robert 
Morris of Philadelphia, asking him to send as much silver as he 
could raise. Morris set out before it was light on New Year's 
morning (1777), and went from house to house, rousing his 
friends from their beds and begging them to lend him all the 
coin they could spare. In this way he got $50,000, which he 
forthwith sent to Washington. 

Cornwallis, having left part of his force at Princeton, hurried 
south in the hope of catching the Americans at Trenton. Wash- 
ington's case seemed hopeless ; behind him was the broad Dela- 
ware full of broken ice, while before him Cornwallis had gathered 
his troops for battle. 

The British did not reach Trenton until nearly sundown 
(January 2, 1777), and the night threatened to be foggy. Corn- 
wallis decided to postpone the attack until the next day. He 
went to bed in high spirits. "At last," said he, "we have run 
down the old fox, and we will bag him in the morning." 

But "the old fox" did not wait to be bagged. Leaving his 
camp fires burning brightly, Washington crept stealthily out of 
his intrenchments, slipped around Cornwallis' sleeping army, 
and marched rapidly on Princeton. There (January 3, 1777) 
he surprised and completely routed the British line. Washing- 
ton then advanced to the heights of Morristown and went into 
winter quarters. Frederick the Great considered the movements 
of Washington during these ten days, December 25, 1776, to 



THE REVOLUTION 

THE MIDDLE STATES 




1777] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 207 

January 4, 1777, the most brilliant of any recorded in the 
annals of military history. 

214. Plans of Lord Germain; Washington baffles Howe; Howe 
sails for Philadelphia. The American commander spent the 
winter at Morristown reorganizing his army. 

Lord Germain of the English cabinet had the general con- 
trol of the British forces in America. He now resolved to make 
a determined effort to get possession of the Hudson. The fol- 
lowing plan was agreed upon : (i) Burgoyne was to move down 
from Canada early in the coming summer (1777), take Ticon- 
deroga, and advance directly on Albany. (2) Another British 
force, starting from Canada, was to land at Oswego, New York. 
They w^ere to secure the aid of the Six Nations and of the 
Tories ; then they were to capture Fort Stanwix (near Rome) on 
the upper Mohawk and, moving down the Mohawk Valley, join 
Burgoyne at Albany. (3) Howe was to send a division of his 
army up the Hudson, capture the American forts in the High- 
lands, and advance and join forces wath Burgoyne. This scheme, 
if successful, would give the English entire control of the state of 
New York. 

By a mischance Lord Germain's dispatch from London, order- 
ing Howe to cooperate with Burgoyne, did not reach the British 
commander until it was too late for him to be of service. 

Howe had wasted nearly three weeks (June 12-30, 1777) in 
endeavoring to march across New Jersey to strike Philadelphia, the 
rebel capital. Nothing hindered the British general's movements 
but Washington's little army'. Washington took such strong posi- 
tions that the enemy did not dare attack him, and if they left him 
in their rear he could cut off their supplies. Constantly harassed 
by our troops, Howe finally fell back in disgust to Staten Island. 

Late in July (1777), having left Clinton to hold New York, 
Howe started with a large fleet to reach Philadelphia by sea. 
He found the Delaware obstructed ; for this reason he landed 
his troops (August 23, 1777) at the head of Chesapeake Bay, 
sixty miles from Philadelphia. 



2o8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i777 

215. The British enter Philadelphia; Valley Forge; Burgoyne's 
advance to Fort Edward. Washington met the advancing British 
force at Chad's Ford on Brandywine Creek (September 11,1777). 
The Americans were small in numbers and were defeated with 
heavy loss. Howe entered Philadelphia in triumph about a fort- 
night later. 

Soon afterward Washington attacked (October 4, 1777) the 
British force encamped at Germantown (now a suburb of Phila- 
delphia). A dense fog prevailed, and two of our brigades fired at 
each other in the belief that they were attacking the enemy ; the 
confusion that ensued caused our defeat. Early in December 
Washington retreated to the hills of Valley Forge, about twenty 
miles from Philadelphia, where he took up his winter quarters 
(1777-1778). 

But if the British had succeeded in getting possession of the 
capital of the American republic, on the other hand they had 
met with terrible disaster in the North. According to orders 
(§ 214), Burgoyne, with a force of nearly eight thousand men, 
including some four hundred Indians, moved upon Ticonderoga 
and captured it (July 5, 1777). He then advanced against 
General Schuyler (§ 206), who stood between him and the 
Hudson. Schuyler felled trees across the only road through 
the forest, destroyed fifty bridges and causeways, and by dam- 
ming up a creek converted a part of the British line of march 
into a deep swamp. When at last, after a march of twenty-four 
days, the British general reached Fort Edward, Schuyler aban- 
doned it, and pushing on across the Hudson took up his posi- 
tion at Bemis Heights, about twenty miles above Albany. 

216. Burgoyne gets his left wing clipped at Bennington. 
Burgoyne now sent (August 16, 1777) a thousand or more Hes- 
sians and Indians to make a raid on the supplies which the 
Americans were reported to hold at Bennington, Vermont. But 
Colonel John Stark of New Hampshire and Seth Warner of 
Vermont stood ready with a body of farmers in their shirt sleeves 
to give the invaders a warm reception. Less than a hundred 




Yorttq 




Map No. I. Burgoyne's campaign. Map No. II. Washington's advance from New 
York to Yorktown. Map No. III. Yorktown : /i,^,/i, American forces; J^,F,F, French 
army; ?F, Washington's headquarters ; /?, Rochambeau's headquarters; La/., Lafayette 

209 



2IO THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1777 

out of the thousand Hessians ever got back to Burgoyne, and 
the Indians fled for their lives, shouting "The woods are full of 
Yankees"; thus the British general got his left wing effectually 
clipped. Washington called the victory at Bennington " a great 
stroke." It prevented Burgoyne from getting the supplies he 
sorely needed and cut off all communication between him and 
the garrison he had left at Ticonderoga. 

217. Burgoyne gets his right wing clipped at Oriskany and 
Fort Stanwix. Burgoyne's right wing, under St. Leger, who was 
advancing from Oswego (§ 214) against Fort Stanwix (near 
Rome), fared no better. General Herkimer met the enemy at 
Oriskany (August 6, 1777), a few miles from the fort. A ter- 
rible hand-to-hand fight ensued. Herkimer received a mortal 
wound which brought him to the ground. He ordered his men 
to place him with his back to a tree ; then, lighting his pipe, 
the hero of Oriskany continued to direct the battle until reen- 
forcements came up from Fort Stanwix and the enemy fled from 
the field. 

St. Leger, however, was besieging Fort Stanwix, which he was 
determined to take at any cost. Congress had recently (June 
14, 1777) adopted the stars and stripes as the banner of the 
American Republic, and a rudely made national flag floated defi- 
antly over the fort. It was the first time our colors had been 
displayed in battle on land (§ 224), and the British general 
swore that he would carry the flag away with him. 

Benedict Arnold with twelve hundred men was then advanc- 
ing to relieve the garrison of Fort Stanwix. Arnold managed 
to send forward reports which represented him as marching at 
the head of several thousand well-armed troops. The Indians of 
St. Leger's force, thinking that Schuyler's whole army was about 
to swoop down, fled in a panic. St. Leger then (August 22, 
1777) retreated to Oswego and sailed for Canada. 

218. The first battle of Bemis Heights (or Saratoga); the 
second battle ; results. General Gates, a scheming politician, 
had been sent by Congress to supersede Schuyler and fight 



1777] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 211 

Burgoyne's center. Gates intrenched himself at Bemis Heights 
(September 12, 1777) on ground selected by Benedict Arnold 
and fortified by Kosciusko (§ 201). 

Burgoyne was anxious to reach Albany, but not daring to leave 
the American forces in his rear, he advanced and attacked them 
(September 19, 1777). Both armies fought desperately ; neither 
could claim a victory ; but as the British lost two men to our 
one, their advance was checked. 

The second battle (October 7, 1777) was even more desper- 
ately contested than the first. Morgan with his famous sharp- 
shooters opened the fight on our side. Gates did not show 
himself on the field, as in fact he had not done in the previous 
battle. Arnold had quarreled with Gates and had thrown up 
his command ; but he now put himself at the head of his former 
division and rushed on to victory amid the cheers of the men 
for their old leader. 

Burgoyne fell back to Saratoga, six miles distant, and there 
(October 17, 1777) surrendered. This was the first great victory 
gained under the stars and stripes. We took nearly six thousand 
prisoners and a large quantity of arms. When the news reached 
London it moved Pitt, now Lord Chatham, to declare in Parlia- 
ment, '' My lords, jv^?/ cannot conquer America." Then he added, 
" If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a for- 
eign troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my 
arms — never — never — never !" ^ 

Burgoyne's surrender was the turning point of the Revolution.^ 
It had three momentous results : (i) it completely broke up the 
plans of the British government (§214) respecting the war; 
(2) it secured for us the open aid of England's old and power- 
ful enemy, France ; (3) it inspired the whole Continental army 
with new hope. 

219. Treaties with France; Valley Forge. The news of Bur- 
goyne's surrender filled England with consternation and France 

1 See C. K. Adams' Representative British Orations, I, 120, 125, 126. 

2 See Creasy's Decisive Battles of the World. 



212 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1778 

with delight. In the spring (May 2, 1778) a messenger arrived 
from the French capital bringing two treaties, — one of com- 
merce and good will, the other of defensive alliance, securing 
to us the help of a French fleet. Franklin, who acted as our 
chief agent in Paris, had achieved a diplomatic triumph. He 
fought for us in France as sturdily and steadily as Washington 
fought for us at home. 

America resounded with rejoicings over the glad tidings ; 
Lafayette grasped Washington's hand and shed tears of joy. 
Washington ordered a salute of thirteen guns to celebrate the 
event, and the hillsides of Valley Forge echoed with the enthu- 
siastic hurrahs of the Continental army as they cheered the king 
of France. 

Meanwhile our men at Valley Forge were in wretched plight. 
They had just passed through a winter of unparalleled hardship 
and suffering. Out of eight thousand troops nearly three thou- 
sand were '' barefoot and otherwise naked." Steuben said, 
" No European army could be kept together a week in such 
a state." Washington wrote to Congress that unless relief came 
the army must either " starve, dissolve, or disperse in order to 
obtain subsistence"; but John Adams declared that Congress 
was "torn to pieces with disputes about office." 

The truth is that our men were sacrificed to the mismanagement 
or the timidity of Congress. There was no lack of provisions or 
of coarse clothing in the country, and at the very time the Con- 
tinental army was freezing and starving on the bleak hillsides of 
Valley Forge the enemy's forces in Philadelphia, as elsewhere, 
could buy from the farmers all the food and fuel they wanted. 

220. The Conway plot; Steuben's services; English peace 
commissioners ; battle of Monmouth. While the American com- 
mander was pleading for help for his men, Conway (§ 201), 
inspector general of the army, was plotting with Gates to 
secure Washington's overthrow. Fortunately, the correspond- 
ence between them leaked out and the conspiracy ended in 
ignominious failure. 



CONTINENTAL AND STATE MONEY 





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1778] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 213 

Baron Steuben (§ 201) was then appointed to Conway's place. 
Steuben had learned the art of war under Frederick the Great. 
He drilled the men day after day, swearing in German and in 
broken English at their awkward maneuvers, until he trained 
these plain farmers and farmers' sons to move with the precision 
of military machines. 

Sir Henry Clinton (§ 200) now (May 18, 1778) succeeded 
Howe in command of the British forces. England, alarmed at 
the French treaty, made a third and last attempt at conciliation 
(§§ 197, 210), and sent over peace commissioners. They were 
empowered to offer the people of the United States exemption 
"forever from direct taxation by Great Britain," full power 
"to govern themselves," representation in Parliament, — in fact, 
almost everything short of separation and actual independence.^ 
Congress rejected the offer and the commissioners replied by a 
proclamation threatening a war of devastation and terror. 

Clinton knew that the French fleet was on its way to America ; 
fearing that it might blockade Philadelphia, he proceeded to 
evacuate that city and move to New York. 

Not having ships enough to transport his army of seventeen 
thousand men, he resolved to march across New Jersey. Wash- 
ington, with a force about equal to that of the British, followed 
the retreating enemy. He overtook them at Monmouth (June 
28, 1778). The treacherous Lee (§ 212), who had been ex- 
changed and had returned to us, wanted to secure the retreat 
of the Enghsh "on velvet." He tried to persuade a council of 
war not to attack the enemy. His attempt failed ; Washington 
ordered him to begin the fight. Instead of obeying orders he 
fell back. At this critical moment the commander in chief rode 
up. "What is the meaning of all this, sir? " demanded Washington 
in a terrible voice. Lee stammered out an excuse. Washington 
ordered him to the rear, rallied the retreating men, and drove 
the British from the field. 

1 See Hildreth's United States, III, 239, 248; Almon's Remembrancer, 144; see 
also Patrick Henry's stirring letter in Hart's American History by Contemporaries, 
II, No. 203. 



214 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1778-1779 

This was the last important battle fought at the North. Had 
Lee done his duty, it might perhaps have been the last battle of 
the Revolution. 

A court-martial convicted Lee of " an unnecessary, disorderly, 
and shameful retreat," and suspended him "from any command 
in the armies of the United States " for one year. Later, Congress 
dismissed him from the army and he died in disgrace. 

221. Prospects of the Revolution (1778) ; Tory and Indian 
raids ; Washington retaliates. The prospects of the success of 
the Revolution now looked decidedly brighter. In future the 
British must not only fight us but fight our French allies besides. 

Clinton established his headquarters in New York City and 
Washington extended his lines from the heights of Morristown, 
New Jersey, to the Highlands of the Hudson. 

During the summer and autumn of 1778 bands of Tories (§ 203) 
and Indians of the Six Nations devastated Wyoming Valley, Penn- 
sylvania (July 3, 1778), and Cherry Valley, New York (Novem- 
ber 10, 1778). The cruelties perpetrated in these raids were 
so horrible that even Brant, the Mohawk leader, was shocked; 
he said, " I have those with me who are more savage than the 
savages themselves." 

Washington (1779) sent General Sullivan to retahate. He 
totally destroyed the Indian settlements of the Onondagas, 
Cayugas, and Senecas in western New York. 

222. The expedition of George Rogers Clark (1778- 1779); Kas- 
kaskia. While these events were occurring in New York, George 
Rogers Clark ^ of Virginia had undertaken no less a task than 
the conquest of the country northwest of the Ohio. That vast 
wilderness was then held by the British forts at Detroit, Vin- 
cennes, Kaskaskia, and Cahokia. All but Detroit, which was 
under the command of the British Colonel Hamilton, were at 
that time garrisoned by French and half-breeds in the pay of 
the English. 

1 See Winsor's Westward Movement, ch. viii ; Roosevelt's Winning of the West, 
II, ch. ii, iii ; Thwaites' George Rogers Clark. 



1778-1779] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 21 5 



The whole region was then claimed by Virginia as part of 
its original charter domain (§ 40). Aided by Patrick Henry, 
then governor of that state, Clark collected a small body of 
frontiersmen as resolute as himself. These hardy pioneers rec- 
ognized no authority higher than that of Virginia. They proposed 
to fight on their own responsibility and for their own ends, quite 
independent of either Washington or Congress. 

Embarking at Pittsburg (June 26, 1778), they dropped down 
the Ohio a distance of nearly a thousand miles through the 
unbroken forest, and landed at a point in what is now southern 
Illinois. Clark and his men then marched across the country 
to Fort Kaskaskia (July 5, 
1778). A dance was in 
progress at the fort when 
Clark entered it unper- 
ceived. When he was dis- 
covered there was a shout 
of alarm. " Keep on with 
your merriment," said 
Clark, " but remember that 
you now dance under Vir- 
ginia, not Great Britain." 

223. Cahokia ; Vincennes ; 
Clark takes the fort ; con- 
quest of the Northwest. Clark won the good will of Father Gibault, 
the French Catholic priest at Kaskaskia, and through his influence 
the French garrisons at Cahokia and at Vincennes took the oath 
of allegiance to the republic and hoisted the American flag. 

Meanwhile Colonel Hamilton (§ 222) had retaken Vincennes. 
Clark with a little band of tenscore men at once set out from 
Kaskaskia to get it back again. It was a winter march (February 
7-25, 1779) of about two hundred miles. The latter part of 
the way lay across the "drowned lands" of the Wabash. The 
men, nearly dead from hunger, had to wade for miles through 
water breast deep and filled with floating ice. 




Map showing the Forts at Detroit, 
Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, with 
THE Line of Clark's March 



2l6 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1779 



After a sharp fight Clark took the fort, and (February 25, 
1779) soon hoisted the stars and stripes in triumph. When the 
flag of the republic rose above the fort this time it rose to stay, 
for it marked the end of British authority in that section forever. 
The Virginia hero and his followers had conquered the whole 
Northwest below the British fort at Detroit. 

224. Captain Paul Jones ; the British on the Hudson; Anthony 
Wayne. A few months later came glorious news from Captain 
Paul Jones, the first man to hoist the stars and stripes on an 
American war ship (§ 109). With his little fleet of three vessels 
— one a half-rotten old hulk — he had captured (September 23, 
1779) two British men of war, the Sei'apis and the Countess 

of Scarborough^ off the east coast of 
England. Thousands of excited people 
watched the progress of the battle from 
the promontory of Flamborough Head. 
At length they saw the English ships 
strike the red ensign of St. George to 
a man whom they loudly denounced 
as a rebel and a pirate. 

But the British before radically 
changing their war plans were deter- 
mined to make one more effort to 
obtain control of the Hudson. They succeeded in getting pos- 
session (June, 1779) of the half-finished American works at Stony 
Point and Verplanck's Point. Anthony Wayne led a midnight 
expedition (July 15, 1779) against the first-named fort and took 
it at the point of the bayonet. It was a very brilliant victory ; but 
we were not strong enough to hold the works permanently. 

225. British successes in the far South ; Charleston taken 
(1780). The British now determined to transfer active mili- 
tary operations to the far South. They hoped in that quarter to 
receive the assistance of the Loyalists (§ 203). 

An expedition sent by sea had already captured Savannah 
(December 29, 1778), and Augusta was next taken. Washington 



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1779-1780] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 21/ 

sent General Lincoln to the South, but he failed to drive the 
enemy out of Augusta. In a similar attempt on Savannah he was 
badly defeated (October 9, 1779), and the gallant Pulaski (§ 201) 
was killed. 

Early the next spring (1780) CHnton sailed to attack Charles- 
ton, — Lincoln's headquarters. After a siege of six weeks the 
town surrendered (May 12, 1780). Clinton took more than five 
thousand prisoners and property valued at nearly $1,500,000. 
The British commander in chief returned to New York in June 
(i 780). He left Cornwallis with a force of seven or eight thousand 
troops to hold Charleston and subdue the state. 

Cornwallis issued a proclamation warning all inhabitants of 
South Carolina that if they did not return to their allegiance to 
the king they would be treated as rebels ; in other words, he 
threatened to hang them. The brutal Colonel Tarleton had 
massacred a party of these rebels on the banks of the Waxhaw, 
and a bitter partisan struggle — a civil war, in fact — now began 
between patriots and Tories (§ 203). 

226. Gates appointed commander at the South; the battle of 
Camden. The most important point in the interior of South Caro- 
lina was Camden. It was a great center for roads and was con- 
sidered "the key between the North and South." Washington 
had sent De Kalb (§ 201) with a small body of men to aid the 
patriots of South Carolina in recovering Camden and other points 
in the interior. Washington hoped to secure the appointment of 
Greene to the general command of the southern department, but 
Congress disregarded his wishes and appointed (June 13, 1780) 
Gates (§218). 

Gates joined De Kalb at Hillsboro, North Carolina. He had 
about three thousand men fit for duty, and he insisted that 
this " grand army," as he called it, should at once march on to 
Camden, where Cornwallis, unknown to the American general, 
had arrived. 

Gates' men arrived tired out, sick, and hungry ; but he at once 
opened the battle of Camden (August 16, 1780). De Kalb's 



2l8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1780 

soldiers fought desperately, but most of the militia '' fled without 
firing a shot." This was not strange, for raw recruits will seldom 
stand against the attack of regular troops. " Two thirds of the 
army," says Gates, " ran like a torrent." Gates himself got away 
as fast as his horse could carry him, and did not fully stop until 
he arrived at Charlotte, sixty miles away. From Charlotte, Gates, 
still running away from his army, sped on to Hillsboro, North 
Carolina. This singular retreat ended his military career. 

227. The treason of Benedict Arnold. This disaster at the 
South was followed in the North by the most startling and the 
saddest event of the war, — the treason of Benedict Arnold. 

Notwithstanding Arnold's impetuous bravery and his splendid 
success as a soldier (§ 218), Congress seemed to grudge him the 
honor he had fairly earned. When at last Congress tardily pro- 
moted him (November 29, 1777) to the rank of senior major 
general, Washington called it ''an act of necessary justice." 

Two years later, while in command in Philadelphia, Arnold was 
charged with fraudulent dealing and with other " illegal and offen- 
sive acts." At his own urgent request he was tried by court- 
martial (December 19, 1779). No criminal intention was proven, 
but the court sentenced him to receive a reprimand from the 
commander in chief. When he administered it Washington 
chose words which seemed rather to compliment than rebuke 
the offender. Yet at that very time Arnold was secretly carrying 
on a treasonable correspondence with Clinton. 

The next summer (1780) Arnold sought and obtained the com- 
mand at West Point, — the most important American post on the 
Hudson. His object in getting the position was to turn it over 
to the enemy. The price for which he sold himself and betrayed 
his country was the promise of an appointment as colonel in the 
British army (with the brevet of brigadier general) and something 
over ^30,000 in cash. 

Fortunately for the American cause, the plot to surrender West 
Point was discovered through the arrest of Andre, the British 
officer by whom Arnold was sending plans of the fort to Clinton, 




REVOLiUTIOlSr 

SOUTHERN STATES 



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1780-1781] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 219 

On his way back from West Point Andre was stopped by some 
of our men and held as a spy. Arnold learned of his capture and 
instantly fled to the British lines. 

Andre was tried by court-martial and hanged, while the man 
who had used him as his tool issued a proclamation urging all 
American soldiers to follow his own traitorous example. Later, he 
led marauding expeditions into Virginia and burned Richmond ; 
his last blow was directed against the towns of New London and 
Groton on the coast of his native state of Connecticut. Arnold 
died in London nearly twenty years after the United States had 
achieved its independence. The motto on his family crest was 
the single word *' Glory " ; long before he died he erased that 
motto with his own hand, and in its place wrote the word 
" Despair." 

228. Dark days; light at the South; victory at Kings Moun- 
tain (1780). Arnold's treason marks what was perhaps the darkest 
period of the Revolution. The enemy, victorious at the South, 
were ravaging Virginia at will, and the republic was bankrupt. 
Continental money had sunk so low in value that a soldier's pay 
amounted in fact to only thirty-three cents a month, and a 
colonel's pay would not buy oats for his horse. 

The winter which followed (i 780-1 781) was one of terrible 
severity, and the men suffered even worse hardships at Morris- 
town than they had at Valley Forge (§ 219). Poorly clothed, 
half-fed, and miserably paid, a part of them rose in revolt. 
Clinton tried to tempt them to desert, but they rejected his 
offers with scorn, saying, " We will not turn Arnolds." 

But in this period of gloom a gleam of light flashed out in the 
South. In the autumn (1780) Cornwallis sent Major Ferguson, 
a brave and efficient officer, to cut off a body of patriots then 
retreating from Georgia to the highlands of North Carolina. 
Suddenly Ferguson found that he was in danger of being cut off 
himself by a body of mountaineers and backwoodsmen. 

The British commander fell back to Kings Mountain, a high 
ridge on the boundary line between the Carolinas. There he 



220 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [mo-nsi 

took his stand, declaring that not all the rebels outside of the 
bottomless pit could drive him to retreat. 

The little American force calling itself the *' army of the 
West" attacked the British on all sides (October 7, 1780). 
Ferguson had fewer men, but had the advantage of position. 
He and his soldiers fought like tigers, driving the Americans 
back again and again ; but our final assault was successful, Fer- 
guson was killed, and the enemy surrendered. 

The victory proved to be the turning point of the war in the 
South. Cornwallis fell back to Winnsboro, South Carolina, 
to wait for Clinton to send reenforcements. Many of the Caro- 
linians, encouraged by the patriot victory, joined Marion's (§ 135) 
ranks and did excellent service in the cause of liberty. 

229. Greene takes command in the Carolinas ; disposition of his 
forces ; battle of Cowpens. Washington now sent General Greene 
to the South. He arrived (December 7, 1780) at Charlotte, 
North Carolina, to take command of his " shadow of an army," 
— for his whole force fit for duty amounted to only eight hun- 
dred men. 

Greene divided this "shadow" into two nearly equal parts. 
One of them he led to a strong position at the base of Cheraw 
Hill. There they could cooperate with Marion and threaten 
Cornwallis' communication with the coast. The other division 
Greene sent westward under Daniel Morgan, "then the best com- 
mander of light troops in the world." Morgan was to threaten 
the British garrisons at the important posts of Ninety Six and 
Augusta. 

Cornwallis, after he received reenforcements, had nearly five 
thousand well-equipped troops ; but he found himself between 
two fires, — Greene and Marion on one side and Morgan on the 
other. The British commander now sent Colonel Tarleton (§ 225), 
" his right arm," with over a thousand troops to crush Morgan or 
compel him to retreat. The two forces met (January 17, 1781) 
at the cattle pastures called the Cowpens, a little south of Kings 
Mountain. 



1781] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 221 

Tarleton was completely routed and lost more than two thirds 
of his men. This defeat struck Cornwallis as hard a blow as 
Burgoyne had received at Bennington (§ 216). The battle of 
Kings Mountain had clipped one wing of the British army; 
now Morgan had clipped the other. 

230. Greene's retreat; Steele's Tavern; the race for the Dan. 
Morgan, knowing that Cornwallis with the whole British force 
would soon be in pursuit of him, now retreated northward. 
Greene sent his men forward to join Morgan's in North Carolina. 
Cornwallis, by a rapid movement, crossed the Catawba, scatter- 
ing the American militia that had gathered there to oppose his 
passage. 

With a heavy heart Greene rode on to Steele's Tavern at 
SaUsbury. "What ! alone, General?" asked his friend. Dr. Read, 
as the American commander dismounted. "Yes," answered 
Greene, " tired, hungry, alone, and penniless." Mrs. Steele, the 
landlord's wife, heard the reply. She set a smoking hot break- 
fast before the weary soldier, then cautiously shutting the door 
behind her, she held out a little bag of silver to him in each 
hand; "Take these," said she, "for you need them, and 1 can 
do without them." 

A portrait of George III was hanging over the fireplace — 
placed there when Americans loved to call him their king. 
Greene turned the face of the picture to the wall and wrote 
on the back of it, " Hide thy face, George, and blush." 

A few days later, the men that Greene had sent forward 
united with Morgan's at Guilford Court House (now Greens- 
boro), North Carolina. Knowing that CornwalHs was in hard 
pursuit of him, Greene himself hurried forward with his force to 
cross the Dan. The American commander won the race and 
succeeded (February 14, 1781) in crossing the stream then 
swollen to a torrent by heavy rains. The British came up just 
as the last boat had reached the opposite bank. Cornwallis 
found an unfordable river in front of him and not a boat to 
be had. 



222 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1781 

231. Battle of Guilford Court House (1781); Cornwallis' 
retreat to Wilmington ; Hobkirk's Hill ; Ninety Six ; Eutaw 
Springs. Greene, having obtained reenforcements, now had nearly 
twice as many men as Cornwallis; but they were largely raw 
recruits, wretchedly armed, and short of provisions, while the 
force under Cornwallis was made up of veterans. The American 
commander recrossed the Dan and (March 15, 1781) fought the 
battle of Guilford Court House (Greensboro). Cornwallis won 
the day, but lost so many men that he was forced to retreat 
to Wilmington, where a British fleet had established a depot of 
supplies. 

A little later, Greene astonished Cornwallis by suddenly moving 
back to South Carolina to fall on the British force left there in 
charge of Lord Rawdon. This was too much, and Cornwallis 
wrote (April 23, 1781), "My situation is very distressing." 
Finally, not knowing what else to do, he decided to advance 
into Virginia and unite with the British forces there. 

Shortly afterward, Greene met and fought Rawdon (April 25, 
1 781) at Hobkirk's Hill, just outside of Camden. Rawdon gained 
the day, but as Major Henry Lee and Marion had cut his com- 
munication with Charleston, the British commander had to aban- 
don Camden and retreat. Greene summarized his experiences 
in a letter to Washington, saying, " We fight, get beat, and fight 
again." He next began the siege of the British post at Ninety 
Six, but failed to take the fort, and shortly after fell back to the 
hills of San tee to refresh his men. 

The southern campaigns of the Revolution, below Virginia, 
ended with the engagement at Eutaw Springs (September 8, 
1781). Greene said of this battle, "It was by far the most 
obstinate fight I ever saw." Both sides claimed the victory. 
Practically Eutaw resulted in success for the Americans, for the 
British, unable to hold the field, fled to Charleston and shut 
themselves up there. 

Greene had never gained a victory in the South, yet, following 
Washington's example, he had exhausted and baffled the enemy. 



1781] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 223 

More than this, with the help of Marion, Sumter, and other 
partisan leaders, he had recovered possession of the Carolinas. 

232 . Cornwallis enters Virginia ; ravages the country ; Lafay- 
ette's movements ; Yorktown. Cornwallis, in pursuance of his 
plan (§ 231), had reached Petersburg, Virginia (May 20, 1781), 
and had increased his force to about seven thousand men. The 
British commander was confronted by Lafayette (§ 201), who was 
waiting for Wayne to arrive with reenforcements. 

Cornw^allis (May 20 to June 26, 1781) sent out a force of a 
thousand cavalry, mounted on Virginia race horses, to ravage the 
country. They seized or destroyed about ^15,000,000 worth of 
property. 

The British commander laughed at Lafayette and boastingly 
wrote, "The boy cannot escape me." It so happened, how- 
ever, that "the boy" intercepted Cornwallis' letter and not 
only managed to escape him but seriously harassed all his move- 
ments. At length, acting in obedience to w^hat he considered 
imperative orders from Clinton, Cornwallis, with his seven 
thousand troops, retired (July 30, 1781) to the peninsula of 
Yorktown. 

233. Washington prepares to attack Cornwallis ; what the 
French did. Washington had been planning an attack on New 
York. He now pressed De Grasse, who commanded a powerful 
French fleet in the West Indies, to come to his help. De Grasse 
decided that he would sail not for New York but for Chesapeake 
Bay. This fact changed Washington's plans (August 17, 17 81), 
and with the cooperation of the French commander he resolved 
to strike Cornwallis instead of Clinton. 

Count Rochambeau's army of four thousand French regulars 
had been stationed at Newport, Rhode Island, since 1780. The 
count now moved to the vicinity of New York to act wdth the 
Continental army in its attack on Yorktown. Less than six 
months had passed since the American commander expressed 
grave doubts whether he could manage to keep the army together 
for the summer. He then wrote, "We are at the end of our 



224 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I78i 

tether . . . now or never deliverance must come." At last 
deliverance had come. 

Washington contrived, as he said, to completely " misguide and 
bewilder " Clinton, who was made to believe that the Americans 
were getting ready to attack New York. At length, when every- 
thing was prepared, Washington suddenly broke camp (August 
19, 1 781). Leaving Heath with four thousand men to hold 
West Point, he set out with his combined French and American 
army of six thousand troops to march across the country. 

But when the great movement was actually in progress, and 
part of the force had reached Philadelphia, a formidable obstacle 
arose. The men demanded their pay. Washington begged Robert 
Morris (§ 213) to raise some ''hard money" for him. Morris bor- 
rowed ^20,000 of Count Rochambeau ; the sight of the bright 
silver coin put the Continental army in good humor and smoothed 
the way onward. Fortunately, too, just at this juncture Colonel 
Laurens arrived at Boston with 2,500,000 francs given by the 
French king to the American cause. 

By this time Clinton had discovered Washington's real object, 
but it was too late for him to help Cornwallis. When the com- 
bined French and American armies arrived at the head of Chesa- 
peake Bay, French transports (September 17, 1781) conveyed 
them to Yorktown. Here Washington was joined by Lafayette's 
men, by a body of Virginia militia, and by three thousand French 
soldiers furnished by De Grasse. His total force numbered nine 
thousand Americans and seven thousand French. 

234. The siege and fall of Yorktown (1781). On the water 
side the powerful French fleet effectually cut off Cornwallis from 
all hope of help or of escape in that direction. 

On the land side the British general saw himself hemmed in 
by a force of sixteen thousand, or more than double his own 
army. The besieging force began at once (September 30, 1781) 
to throw up w^orks. Hour by hour they crept nearer to the 
doomed town. On the tenth day (October 9, 1781) Washington 
himself applied the match to the first American battery. 



1781-1783] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 225 

From that time onward, for more than a week, a circle of 
sixty cannon and mortars rained an incessant storm of shot, 
shell, and red-hot balls against the defenses of Cornwallis. The 
British general could make but a feeble reply ; his stock of artil- 
lery ammunition was fast running short, and his half-completed 
fortifications were crumbling to pieces. Of his garrison only a 
little over three thousand men were fit for duty ; the rest were 
lying sick or wounded in hospital, or were worn out by fatigue. 

On October 17 (i 781) Cornwallis sent out a white flag and asked 
for terms. It was exactly four years since Burgoyne had surren- 
dered at Saratoga (§ 218). The next day, October 18 (1781), 
the British garrison with colors cased marched out between the 
lines of the American and French forces, which formed an avenue 
more than a mile in length. The captive army moved with slow 
arid solemn steps, their drums beating the quaint but highly 
appropriate tune of '' The World 's Upside Down." 

235. Effect of the news of the surrender of Cornwallis in Eng- 
land; treaty of peace (1783). When the news of the surrender 
reached London, Lord North, the English prime minister, threw 
up his arms as though a cannon ball had struck him, and cried 
out wildly, " O God, it is all over ! " He was right, for although 
desultory fighting continued for a time, yet the fall of Yorktown 
really ended the war. 

Both sides had long been weary of the struggle. The spring after 
Cornwallis surrendered, the House of Commons resolved to " con- 
sider as enemies to his majesty and the country" all who should 
urge the further prosecution of the war against the Americans. 

Before the close of that year a provisional treaty of peace was 
made (1782). On the 19th of April, 1783, just eight years to 
a day after the battle of Lexington, Washington issued an order 
to the Continental army declaring the War of the Revolution at 
an end. The soldiers had received no pay for a great length of 
time and they were in sore need of money ; but Congress, as 
Washington said, sent them home " without a farthing in their 
pockets." 



226 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1783 

In making the final treaty of peace the main points which we 
demanded were : (i) the full recognition of the independence of 
the thirteen states; (2) the recognition of the Mississippi River 
as our western boundary ; (3) the recognition of our right to 
fish on the banks of Newfoundland. The English, on the other 
hand, wished (i) to limit our western boundary to the line of 
the Alleghenies; (2) to shut us out from any part of the cod 
fisheries ; (3) they insisted on our making compensation to the 
Tories for their loss of property. 

Our commissioners, Adams, Franklin, and Jay, refused to 
accept these conditions, but agreed that the last demand should 
be referred to the legislatures of the states, with a recommenda- 
tion that they give it favorable consideration. The result was 
that when the final treaty^ was signed at Paris, September 3, 
1783, it fully recognized all the chief points which we claimed, 
namely : (i) the independence of the American Republic ; (2) the 
Mississippi River as our western boundary ; (3) our right to fish 
on the banks of Newfoundland. 

236. Articles of Confederation ; Maryland and the western land 
claims. Meanwhile the United States had adopted (1781) the 
plan of confederation^ first reported to Congress in 1776 (§ 209). 

Congress voted (1777) to accept the proposed constitution,^ 
but several of the states found serious objections to it. In order 
that the Articles of Confederation should go into effect, it was 
necessary that all of the states should formally ratify them. 
Finally, all agreed to do so except Maryland. She positively 
refused unless the seven states which claimed westen territory 
(§§ 40, 173) should cede their claims to the United States for 
the general good. 

For a long time none of the states claiming western lands 
would agree to give them up. This difficulty threatened to pre- 
vent the adoption of any regular system of national government. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 3. 

2 See Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, IH, Nos. 37-41. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 2. 



I78i-i787-| THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 227 

At length, however, New York offered to surrender her claim. 
Connecticut and Virginia had already virtually promised to do 
the same. On the day that New York made her offer Maryland 
signed the Articles, thus making the Confederation complete 
(March i, 1781). 

The whole immense northwestern territory, extending to the 
Mississippi, was now practically secured to the nation. This 
fact greatly strengthened the bonds of the new republic and 
promised to guarantee its permanency and its growth. Later 
(i 787-1 802), North Carolina and Georgia ceded their western 
territory (see map facing page 226) to the United States, but with 
the provision that slavery should not be prohibited in the ceded 
territory. Congress accepted this stipulation without debate. 
South Carolina, having but a very narrow strip to cede, made 
no conditions, since the land she gave would of necessity be 
incorporated with the slave states. 

237. The ordinance for the government of the Northwest Ter- 
ritory (1787). After New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, and 
Connecticut had completed their cessions of land (i 781-1787) 
the Congress of the Confederation took action. By the famous 
Ordinance of 1787, '' the Magna Charta of the West," it erected 
a government for the territory northwest of the Ohio.^ 

Among other provisions that ordinance enacted: (i) "that 
no one should ever be molested on account of his mode of wor- 
ship or religious sentiments in said territory " ; (2) that schools 
and the means of education should be ^' forever encouraged " ; 
(3) slavery was absolutely barred out, but slaves escaping from 
their masters in the states and taking refuge in the Northwest 
Territory were to be seized and returned to their owners. 

By the third provision this celebrated ordinance, so highly 
praised by Daniel Webster, did two opposite things : it secured 
an enormous area to freedom, but it first granted national recog- 
nition and protection to the existence of slavery ; (4) finally, the 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 4; Hart's American History told by 
Contemporaries, IH, No. 46. 



228 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1781-1787 

ordinance provided that all states formed from this territory 
should be admitted on an equal footing in every respect with 
the thirteen original states. 

From that magnificent domain, embracing about 270,000 
square miles, the five great and powerful states of Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin (together with eastern 
Minnesota) were formed between the years 1803 and 1848. 

238. Chief provisions of the Articles of Confederation (1781). 
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union ^ (§§209, 
236) bound the states (i) to "enter into a firm league of friend- 
ship with each other" ; (2) all votes in Congress were to be cast 
by states, and each state, whatever its number of delegates, was 
to have but " one vote " ; (3) Congress reserved the power of 
declaring war and peace, and of negotiating treaties ; (4) Con- 
gress, on appeal, was to decide all disputes between the states ; 

(5) the regulation of commerce and the raising of revenue and 
taxes were left entirely to the control of the separate states ; 

(6) the power to coin and issue money was shared with the 
states by the general government ; (7) Congress had authority 
to appoint a Committee of the States to manage the general 
affairs of the nation when the national Legislature was not in ses- 
sion ; (8) the final article declared that the union thus formed 
should be "perpetual," and forbade that any change should here- 
after be made in the above constitution "unless such alteration 
be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards 
confirmed by the legislature of every state." 

239. What the Confederation accomplished ; weakness of the 
government. The strong point of the Confederation was that it 
early recognized the absolute neces^ty of a union of the states. 
Under this union, imperfect as it was, the Congress of the Con- 
federation did some good and lasting work, (i) It made the 
treaty of peace with England (§ 235) and several other treaties 
with European powers ; (2) it enacted the ordinance for the gov- 
ernment of the Northwest Territory (§ 237) ; (3) it added the 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 2. 



87 



82 



77 



THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY was divided into the five 
following states (with Minnesota east of the Mississippi) : 1. Ohio, 
admitted isoa ; 2. Indiana, admitted ISltt ; 3. Illinois, admitted 
ISIS ; 4. Michigan, admitted 1837 ; 5. WisconBin, admitted 1848, 
(See note on map of U. S. 1783.) 




1781-1787] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 229 

territory ceded by North Carolina, Soutli Carolina, and Georgia 
to the public domain (§ 236). 

On the other hand, it had fatal defects.^ It was not a govern- 
ment established by the people, but simply a league of sovereign 
and practically independent states. To those sovereign states 
the people felt that they owed everything, to the national govern- 
ment they owed nothing. Under this Confederation, Congress 
consisted of a single House which represented the states and 
the states only. The national government had no president ; it 
was "a body without a head." Congress could advise, request, 
implore, but it could not command. 

In this last point lay the utter weakness of the whole system. 
It was an attempt to reconcile contradictions, — to grant power 
and at the same time to withhold it. The national government 
could make treaties, but could not compel their observance. It 
could borrow money, but could not guarantee that a single dollar 
of the debt would ever be paid. It could recommend taxation, 
but could not enforce it. It could enact laws, but could not 
punish those who refused to obey them. It could make war, but 
could not raise a single soldier to light for the defense of the 
country. In short, as Judge Story has aptly said, " Congress 
could declare everything, but could do nothing." Its whole 
attitude was that of a suppliant. 

While the Revolution was in progress the pressure of the war 
forced the separate states to stand by each other ; but as soon 
as that pressure was removed, the states, like a barrel that had 
lost its hoops, threatened to fall to pieces. 

240. State of the country under the Confederation. When 
peace was made, Thomas Paine wrote in the last number of his 
American Crisis, *' The times which tried men's souls are 
over." It was a great mistake, for the next five years under 
the Confederation were full of distress, doubt, discouragement, 
and tendencies to disunion. 

1 See Fiske's Critical Period of American History ; Hart's American History 
told by Contemporaries, HI, Nos. 37-41. 



230 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I78i-1787 

Instead of presenting a bold, united front to the world, we 
exhibited the pitiful spectacle of thirteen little discordant repub- 
lics bound together with "a rope of sand." Hamilton said, 
''There is scarcely anything that can wound the pride or 
degrade the character of an independent nation which we do 
not experience ; " and Washington declared that we were moving 
upon " crutches " and tottering to our fall.^ 

241. Attempts of Congress to raise money; quarrels about 
trade. The first sign of this fatal weakness was seen when the 
government made an attempt to pay the soldiers of the Revolu- 
tion a part of what was due them. Congress was "penniless 
and powerless." It called on the states to contribute ; some 
responded, others did not. All national demands for money 
were followed by a like result. Out of over $6,000,000 called 
for (i 782-1 786), Congress obtained only $1,000,000. 

An attempt was made (1782) to amend the Articles of Con- 
federation so as to give the government power to levy a five- 
per-cent duty on imported goods. This measure was proposed 
in order that the nation might get means to discharge a part of 
its debt. The assent of all the states was required ; all gave 
their consent but Rhode Island. She refused, mainly on the 
ground that the proposed duty would fall too heavily on the 
chief importing states, of which she was then one. 

Later (1786), the project was revived in a more limited form. 
New York then refused unless she could appoint her own col- 
lectors. This proviso killed the plan, and Congress had to go 
on as best it could with an empty treasury. 

The country was anxious to make a commercial treaty with 
England, but that power refused to negotiate with a nation 
which was a nation only in name. Then quarrels sprang up 
about foreign and domestic trade. New England wished to 
exclude all exports and imports by British ships, but the south- 
ern states, having no ships of their own, demanded why they 

1 See Washington's Circular Letters to the Governors of the States (1783) in 
the 014 South Leaflets, No. 15. 



1786-1787] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 23 1 

should be asked to give the monopoly of the carrying trade to 
the North. 

The states which had no seaports had to pay tolls to the 
states where the goods were received. New Jersey w^as like a 
cask tapped at both ends ; she paid toll at New York and at 
Philadelphia. North Carolina was in a similar predicament. 

New York laid a tax on the New Jersey and Connecticut 
market boats. New Jersey retaliated by taxing the lighthouse 
which New York had built at Sandy Hook on the Jersey shore. 
Connecticut towns took their revenge by boycotting New Y'ork 
and refusing to send any more butter, eggs, and early vegetables 
to that city.^ 

242. Scarcity of Specie; Shays' rebellion (1786). At the same 
time the whole country was distressed by the need of "hard 
money." There was no mint; with the exception of a few pen- 
nies, the only coins in circulation were worn and clipped foreign 
pieces. Most of the states kept their printing presses busy 
manufacturing ''soft money." These notes were constantly fall- 
ing in value. Massachusetts refused to issue irredeemable paper 
promises to pay, and her country people felt the lack of specie 
all the more keenly. 

The total public and private debts of the commonwealth 
averaged about $200 for every taxpayer. Many farmers who 
had fought in the Revolution could not satisfy their creditors. 
They might have boxes full of worthless Continental paper cur- 
rency in their attics, but they saw their cattle driven off by 
order of the courts and their homesteads sold by foreclosure of 
mortgages. 

In Worcester County and the counties west of it the situa- 
tion became desperate. Excited crowds declared that all prop- 
erty should be held in common, since all had fought to save it. 
Then came the cry : " Down with the civil courts ! " " Down 
with the wicked lawyers ! " " Hurrah for ' soft money* and plenty 
of it ! " 

1 See Fiske's Critical Period in American History, 



232 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1786-1787 

Mobs began to obstruct the sitting of courts. Finally, Daniel 
Shays, who had been a captain in the Continental army, led 
more than a thousand armed men to Worcester (1786), took 
possession of the courthouse, and dispersed the judges. 

Later (1787), he attempted to capture the United States 
arsenal at Springfield ; blood was shed and the state govern- 
ment was believed to be in serious peril. But the governor 
sent a strong force against Shays (1787) and the rebellion 
collapsed. Jefferson, who was then in France, made light of the 
whole matter. He declared that " a little rebellion now and then 
is a good thing . . . and as necessary in the political world as 
storms in the physical world." ^ But Washington and all friends 
of order who were on the spot had been greatly alarmed. They 
feared that the insurrection would spread to other states, and they 
knew that Congress was practically helpless. Shays' rebellion, 
however, had one good result : it emphasized the need of a strong 
federal government, and thus helped to ensure the framing of a 
new and more efficient constitution. 

243. Trouble in the West ; threats of secession ; Jefferson's 
letter. In the West trouble of a still more dangerous kind arose. 
Spain closed the Mississippi and vowed that she would keep it 
shut until she secured a more satisfactory boundary line for her 
American possessions in the south (§267). A Kentucky flat- 
boat man, disregarding the Spanish decree, started boldly down 
the river with a load of hardware. The Spanish authorities at 
Natchez stopped him, seized both his boat and cargo (1786), 
and left him to get back home on foot through the wilderness as 
best he could. 

The impetuous spirit of the Kentucky settlers was roused. 
They swore that if the river was not opened they would raise 
an army of backwoods riflemen, who would force their way 
through and drive the Spaniards into the sea. 

John Jay thought that we should not really need the use of 
the river for many years. He advised Congress to make a 
I 3ee Jefferson's Works, II, 267, 



1787] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 233 

treaty with Spain and give up all claim to the navigation of the 
Mississippi for a quarter of a century. This proposition set the 
country in a blaze. Indignation meetings were held by the Ken- 
tuckians. Many threatened that if Jay's advice was taken they 
would secede from the Union and form an alliance with Great 
Britain. On the other hand, there were New England men who 
vowed they would secede if Jay's advice was not taken. In this 
emergency Congress stood alarmed, helpless, and ashamed. 

Jefferson, then in Paris, wrote (1787) to Madison, saying: 
" I never had any interest westward of the Alleghenies, and I 
never will have any, . . . but I will venture to say that the act 
which abandons the navigation of the Mississippi is an act of 
separation between the eastern and the western country." The 
question was not settled until 1795, when a treaty was made with 
Spain (§ 267). 

To these difficulties we must add the financial muddle. Many 
of the states perpetrated frauds in their issue of worthless paper 
money. This constituted another peril which was undermining 
the Confederation. 

244. The Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia (1787). 
Meanwhile Virginia and Maryland had a dispute over the navi- 
gation of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac. The commis- 
sioners appointed to decide the controversy failed to agree. 
Finally, it was recommended that a convention should be held 
at Philadelphia " for the sole and express purpose of revising 
the Articles of Confederation." 

The convention met for business May 25, 1787. It was a 
body composed of men who would have done honor to any 
nation. All the states were represented except New Hampshire 
which sent delegates later, and Rhode Island which sent none 
at all. Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, and Madison were 
among the fifty-five members.^ Washington was chosen to pre- 
side. Jefferson, then in France, called it an "assembly of 

1 See the Constitution, with an introduction and with the names of the thirty- 
nine signers, in the Appendix, page vi. 



234 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1787 

demigods." The delegates sat with closed doors, keeping their 
proceedings secret. They decided that instead of revising the 
Articles of Confederation they would draw up an entirely new 
constitution.^ 

245. Conflicting opinions in the Convention. The Constitutional 
Convention represented widely different ideas and interests. 

1. A part of the delegates emphasized the necessity of 
national sovereignty. They urged that all the chief powers, 
including the control of foreign trade, should be centralized in 
the general government. Others vehemently opposed this, and 
insisted on state sovereignty. Their plan was to grant the nation 
the least possible power, but to reserve the utmost ix)ssible to 
the separate states. 

2. There was next the conflict respecting state representa- 
tion. On this point the large and the small states could not 
agree. The former naturally demanded representation based on 
population ; the latter demanded that all representation should 
be equal, so that the vote of the small states should count for 
as much as that of their more powerful neighbors. 

3. Finally, the great slave-holding states insisted that all 
slaves should be counted in making up the basis of representa- 
tion in Congress. The northern states, on the other hand, 
contended that only the white population should be counted. 
There was also a serious difference with regard to the foreign 
slave trade. The great majority of the states wished to pro- 
hibit it, but the South Carolina and Georgia delegates abso- 
lutely refused to vote for the Constitution unless that trade 
should be kept open. Their motto was, " No slave trade, no 
Union." New England merchants who were engaged in bring- 
ing cargoes of negroes from Africa strongly supported South 
Carolina. 

246. The three great compromises of the Constitution. The 
debate on the above-mentioned points was so violent that it 

1 See Johnston's American Orations, I, 9-44; Hart's American History told by 
Contemporaries, IH, Nos. 54-75. 



1787] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 235 

twice threatened to break up the convention. The conflict was 
finally settled by three great compromises. 

1. It was agreed that the national government should be 
invested with powers of the first importance. It was authorized 
to regulate foreign commerce, levy taxes, and impose customs 
duties ; to declare war, equip armies, and call out the militia 
to suppress insurrection and enforce the laws of the Union. 
Finally, it was to have authority to make all laws necessary for 
carrying into execution the powers conferred upon it. There 
was to be a Supreme Court, with a number of lower federal 
courts, to interpret and apply the provisions of the Constitution 
and the laws enacted by Congress. To make this authority 
effective the executive power was vested in a President of the 
United States, who was made commander in chief of the army 
and navy. 

On the other hand, it was agreed (by later action) that all 
" powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution 
nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states 
respectively, or to the people." The question where supreme 
power resided, whether in the nation or in the individual states, 
was not explicitly settled, nor was anything said respecting the 
right of a state to withdraw from the Union (§§ 247, 273, 355).^ 

2. It was decided that Congress, instead of consisting of a 
single House, should be divided into the Senate and the House 
of Representatives, Representation was to be equal in the 
Senate, — each state to have two members, — while in the 
House of Representatives it was to be based on population. 

3. It was agreed in making up the basis of direct taxation 
and representation that five negroes should be counted as equal 
to three whites, because it was assumed that the productive 
labor of negroes and of whites would stand in that ratio. It 



1 See Macy's Civil Government, ch. xxxix, on the '* Silences of the Constitution " ; 
Johnston's American Politics, ch. i ; Gordy's Political History of the United States, 
I, 79 ; Bryce's American Commonwealth, I, ch. iii et seq. In general, see Elliot's 
Debates on the Constitution, I. 



236 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1787 

was assumed that African bondage was a temporary system. 
For this reason, Madison tells us, the expressions " slave " and 
" slaves " were not used in the Constitution ; but, as John Quincy 
Adams said, they were neatly hidden under the "fig leaves" of 
the words "person" or "persons held to service or labor." ^ 
Slavery was to be protected by a fugitive-slave provision, and the 
importation of slaves was not to be prohibited by Congress before 
1808. This kept the negro supply open for twenty years. 

247. The convention adopts the new Constitution ; action of 
the states ; the first presidential election. When the great work 
was completed (September 17, 1787) and the last of the thirty- 
nme delegates who were present were signing the Constitution, 
the white-haired Franklin rose. Looking at a figure of a half 
sun painted on the back of the President's chair, he said : " I 
have often and often in the course of the session looked at that 
sun v/ithout being able to tell whether it was rising or setting ; 
but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a 
rising and not a setting sun." 

But the sun did not rise without a cloud. The country was 
divided between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The 
former advocated the Constitution on the ground that the repub- 
lic needed a strong government. The latter, among whom were 
such men as Patrick Henry, ^ Richard Henry Lee, and Samuel 
Adams^ opposed it because they feared that such a govern- 
ment would be fatal to the individual liberty and welfare of the 
states and of the people. Massachusetts w^as won only after a 
tremendous struggle ; Madison, Randolph, and John Marshall 
gained the adhesion of Virginia ; Alexander Hamilton, by his 
speeches * and by the power of that remarkable series of papers 
called the Federalists'^ fought the victorious battle in New York. 

The Constitution was finally accepted by a small majority ; 
but most of the states which then voted to come under the 

1 See the Constitution in the Appendix, vii, x, xiv. 

2 See Johnston's American Orations, I, 24. 3 Ibid., I, 30. 
4 See Old Sorth Leaflets, No. 12. 



1787-1788] THE REVOLUTION, THE CONSTITUTION 237 

"new roof" demanded that it should speedily receive important 
amendments. Virginia expressly qualified her acceptance of the 
Constitution by asserting the right of the people to resume the 
powers they had delegated to the general government. New 
York did the same.^ 

North Carolina and Rhode Island, fearing that their issues 
of paper money might be curtailed by the proposed Constitution, 
rejected it. The Articles of Confederation were still in force. 
They could not be altered or set aside except by the action of 
the "legislatures of every state" (§ 238). But notwithstanding 
this provision, when eleven states had ratified the new Consti- 
tution the Congress of the Confederation declared it in force 
(September 13, 1788). 

Thus by a peaceful revolution a majority of the states quietly 
overturned the old form of government. They withdrew from 
the first Union (in which North Carolina and Rhode Island still 
remained) and established a new and " more perfect Union," but 
just how perfect time alone could determine. The two above- 
named states stood out by themselves until the recently adopted 
Constitution went into operation, when at length they decided 
(1789, 1790) to join the majority; and so the last two pillars in 
the new " temple of liberty " were triumphantly set up. Many 
years later, John Quincy Adams declared that the Constitution 
was " extorted from the grinding necessity of a reluctant nation." 

The aristocratic spirit of the colonial period (§ 184) made 
itself felt, and in certain important respects the new frame of 
government was not a democratic instrument. It did not give the 
people the direct power of electing the President of the United 
States or the members of the Senate.^ In fact, " the Constitution 
was the work of men who had a vivid sense of the danger of 
democracy." 

Since it went into operation the Constitution has been modi- 
fied in three ways: (i) by amendment (§251); (2) by the 

1 See Elliot's Debates on the Constitution, I, 327. 

2 See the Constitution, Appendix, xi (Art. II, Sect, i) ; vii (Art. I, Sect. 3). 



238 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i789- 

interpretations and decisions of the Supreme Court of the United 
States (§ 275); and (3) by political usage respecting broad or 
strict construction (§256). 

The first presidential election had already taken place. As 
the Constitution then stood (before the adoption of the twelfth 
amendment (§ 279) in 1804)/ the person receiving the highest 
number of electoral votes was declared President and the one 
receiving the next highest was to be Vice President. Under the 
restrictions then existing (§ 1 74) only one in twenty of the popu- 
lation could vote ; as a rule, the landless man could not cast a 
ballot, and he could not hope to hold any high office ; - at pres- 
ent at least one in four of the population of the United States 
has the right to vote.^ Washington was unanimously elected 
President of the United States, and John Adams was chosen 
Vice President. 

248. Summary. The American colonists began the Revolution 
(1775) to obtain their constitutional rights as loyal subjects of 
the Enghsh crown. The contest soon developed (1776) into the 
War for Independence. 

During the first part of the Revolution the government of the 
United States was in the hands of the Continental Congress. 
Later (1781), a "league of perpetual friendship" was formed 
between the states under the name of the Articles of Con- 
federation, and the Congress of the Confederation took the 
management of the affairs of the national government. 

Owing mainly to its lack of needful executive and coercive 
power the " league " failed to give satisfaction. To remedy this 
defect and to form " a more perfect Union," our present Con- 
stitution was framed and put in operation by eleven of the thir- 
teen states (1789); shortly afterward the two remaining states 
decided to ratify it and thereby entered the new Union. 



1 See the Constitution, Appendix, xi (Art. II, Sect, i) and xvii (Art. XII). 

2 See Thorpe's Constitutional History of the United States, I, 68, ']'j^ 82, 93-97 ; 
II, 476. 

3 See Professor Thorpe in Harper's Magazine, November, 1897, Z-^. 



V 

THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ^ 

(1789-1861) 

For authorities /or this chapter, see foot7iotes and the classified 
list of books in the Appendix, page xxiv 

GEORGE WASHINGTON (FEDERALIST), TWO TERMS (1789-1797) 

249. The inauguration; tasks of the new government; state 
of the nation. Congress began to assemble in March, 1789, in 
Federal Hall, New York. Washington's inauguration (§ 247) 
took place xA.pril 30, on the balcony of the hall. At its close the 
bells of the city rang out a joyous peal, the cannon on the Battery 
fired a salute, and the crowd in the streets shouted, " Long live 
George Washington, President of the United States ! " 

The President and Congress had formidable tasks before them. 
It was their duty to set up and start the machinery of the new 
government. The outlook was doubtful if not threatening. 

1 See, in general, on this section, Hildreth's United States (1789-1820), IV- VI; 
Winsor's America, VII ; McMaster's United States (1789-1829), I-V; Adams' United 
States (1801-1815), I-IX; Rhodes' United States (1850-1861), I-III ; Schouler's 
United States, I-V ; Bryant and Gay's United States (rev. ed.), IV-V ; Wilson's 
United States, III-IV ; Hart's Epochs of American History, III-IV ; Scribner's 
American History Series, III-IV ; Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, 
III-IV ; Macdonald's Select Documents ; Johnston's American Politics ; Gordy's 
Political History of the United States (rev. ed.) (1789-1828), I-II ; Von Hoist's 
Constitutional History of the United States, I-VIII ; Benton's Debates of Congress 
(1789-1850), I-XVI ; Benton's Thirty Years' View (1820-1850) ; Thorpe's Constitu- 
tional History of the American People; Woodburn's American Politics; Merriam's 
American Political Theories ; Stanwood's The Presidency ; Snow's American Diplo- 
macy ; McKee's National Conventions and Platforms ; Johnston's Representative 
American Orations (Woodburn), I-III; Dewey's Financial History of the United 
States; Semple's American History and its Geographic Conditions; Wright's Indus- 
trial Evolution of the United States ; Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States 
History (rev. ed.), 10 vols. 

239 



240 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1789 

A majority of the states virtually demanded the prompt amend- 
ment of the Constitution as the price of their allegiance to the 
Union (§ 247). The nation was deeply in debt and had neither 
revenue nor credit. It was necessary that we should be able to 
defend our rights against foreign attack and to maintain domestic 
order, but the army had been disbanded and we did not possess 
a single war ship. Great Britain had excluded American com- 
merce from the British West Indies and had declined to make a 
commercial treaty with us or to send a minister to this country. 
Furthermore that power refused to give up Oswego, Niagara, 
Detroit, Mackinaw, and other fortified posts, on the ground that 
we had not fully carried out our treaty pledges (§235). At the 
South, Spain denied our right to the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi (§ 243). She refused to recognize the southern boundary 
of the United States and she even claimed a large part of the 
territory held by the state of Georgia (see map facing page 250). 
West of the Alleghenies the Indians were restless, and in the Ohio 
country they were preparing to attack the whites. 

On the sea the Barbary pirates shut the Mediterranean against our 
commerce ; every American vessel which approached the Straits 
of Gibraltar did so at the risk of losing both crew and cargo. 

This condition of affairs at home and abroad gave rise to many 
perplexing questions ; but before Washington retired from office 
(1797) they had all been settled in a manner which secured 
peace, at a time when peace was, of all things, most essential to 
the welfare of the nation. 

250. Executive Department ; the Cabinet ; the Supreme Court ; 
the tariff ; tonnage and excise. The first work accomplished by 
Congress was the estabhshment of the departments of State, the 
Treasury, and War. 

Washington chose his cabinet officers from opposite pohtical 
ranks. He appointed Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; 
Knox, Secretary of War ; Jefferson, Secretary of State ; and 
Randolph, Attorney-General. The first two were Federalists, 
the last two Anti Federalists (§§ 247, 256). 



1789] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 241 

Congress, by the judiciary Act, organized the Supreme Court 
of the United States — "the sleeping giant" and guardian of 
the Constitution — and also established the inferior federal courts. 

Washington appointed John Jay, Chief Justice. The court 
over which he presided was intrusted with the highest power 
granted to any tribunal in the Republic, — that of determining, 
on appeal, the constitutionaHty of the acts of Congress and of the 
laws of the states (Appendix, page xiii). Speaking of the services 
of the Supreme Court, Webster said that without it the Constitu- 
tion " would be no Constitution, the government no government." 

The most urgent of all questions before Congress was, How to 
raise a revenue? Should it be obtained by direct tax or by 
imposing a duty on imported goods ? The decision was in favor 
of the latter method, and an act was passed (1789) establishing 
the first tariff. The preamble declared that the tariff was " for the 
support of the government, for the discharge of the debts of the 
United States, and the encouragement and protection of manu- 
factures." The average duty imposed was very low, — less than 
nine per cent. No very decided changes were made in these rates 
until the War of 181 2 ; ^ the duties were then doubled (§ 299). 

Congress next passed (1789) a tonnage act which levied a tax 
of six cents per ton on vessels built and owned in the Ignited 
States and engaged in foreign trade, thirty cents on vessels built 
in America but owned abroad, and fifty cents per ton on all 
other merchant vessels entering our ports. Finding that the pay- 
ment of the entire public debt would require a larger revenue. 
Congress enacted (1791) a law which imposed an excise duty of 
from nine to thirty cents a gallon on whisky and other distilled 
spirits (§ 263).^ 

From all sources the government obtained a total annual reve- 
nue of about $4,000,000, — a sum then regarded as ample for 
meeting the expenses of the nation.^ Since that date the revenue 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 80. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Documents. No. 8. 

3 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, no, in. 



242 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1789-1790 

has increased more than a hundredfold, and the demands on it 
have multiplied in like ratio. 

251. Amendments to the Constitution. A majority of the states 
had called for certain amendments to the Constitution (§ 247). 
Congress adopted twelve, ten of which were ratified by the states 
before 1792. They practically formed a Bill of Rights " for the 
more efficient protection of the people " (Appendix, page xvi). 

The first of these amendments (Appendix, page xvi) is espe- 
cially noteworthy. It secures freedom of speech and of the 
press (§ 272), the right of petition, and the free exercise of reli- 
gion. Finally, it expressly forbids the establishment of a national 
church. The leading powers of Europe had always considered 
such a church indispensable to their existence ; the founders of 
the American Republic were the first to create a government 
entirely independent of any creed or form of worship. 

The tenth amendment (Appendix, page xvii) ranks in impor- 
tance with the first. It reserves to the states, or to the people, all 
" powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, 
nor prohibited by it to the states." Later, the eleventh amend- 
ment, provoked by a decision of the Supreme Court ^ of the United 
States (Appendix, page xvii), restricted the power of the federal 
courts with respect to the states. The twelfth amendment, relat- 
ing to the election of the President and Vice President of the 
United States, was ratified in 1804 (§ 279). Although many 
hundreds of amendments to the Constitution were proposed in 
the course of the next sixty years, none were adopted until the 
period of Reconstruction, when three were added (i 865-1 870) 
to protect the negro (§ 523), 

252. Hamilton's report on the public debt. Early in 1790 
Hamilton (§ 250) made his report on the public debt.^ He 
divided it into three classes: (i) the foreign debt; (2) the 
domestic debt ; (3) the state debts. 

1 See Abstract of Constitutional Decisions {Chisholm vs. Georgia)^ facing 
page 266. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 6 ; Dewey's Financial History of the 
United States, 89. 



1790-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 243 

The first amounted to nearly ^12,000,000. It represented, in 
the main, money which we had borrowed during the Revolution 
from France, Spain, and private capitalists in Holland. The 
domestic debt of $42,000,000 was the amount which the nation 
owed to citizens of the states. Finally, there were the state debts, 
estimated at $21,500,000. 

The entire national and state obligations footed up $75,500,- 
000. Hamilton called this total " the price of liberty." He 
recommended the government to make provision for the pay- 
ment of the whole sum, principal and interest, beheving that strict 
honesty would prove to be the best possible cement for binding 
the new Union solidly together. 

253. Debate on Hamilton's proposition. Congress agreed with- 
out dissent to the first part of the Secretary's scheme. It was not 
only willing but anxious to pay every dollar which we had bor- 
rowed abroad ; but many prominent men thought it unwise to offer 
to discharge the full amount of the domestic debt. It was ridiculed 
by the opposition as a scheme for " the relief of the well to do." 
The certificates of this debt had fallen to fifteen cents on the 
dollar, and had been largely bought up by speculators, who would 
be the only ones to profit by their redemption. The supporters 
of Hamilton's measure contended that the government should keep 
its contract to the letter, no matter who held the certificates. By 
so doing, said they, we shall put our credit on a firm foundation, 
and teach future investors in our national securities not to sacri- 
fice them. After protracted debate this argument prevailed, and 
Congress decided to pay both the foreign and the domestic debt. 

The great final contest was over the question of the assumption 
of the state debts. The Northern States owed the larger part, 
and were generally in favor of shifting the responsibility of pay- 
ment to the shoulders of the national government. The South- 
ern States, which owed far less, declared that Congress had no 
right to assume these debts and thereby compel the people of 
the South to help clear off obligations which they had never 
incurred. 



244 I^HE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1790- 

They furthermore contended that it was very doubtful whether 
the Constitution authorized such an act, which they thought would 
dangerously encroach on the right and responsibility of the 
states to manage their own affairs. The advocates of Hamilton's 
policy repHed that the proposed measure was necessary for the 
common good and for the complete establishment of the public 
credit. 

254. " Logrolling " ; funding the debt. Eventually the dispute 
was settled by compromise. While the discussion was going on, 
the question of the location of the national capital was under 
debate. New York wanted it on the Hudson ; Pennsylvania, on 
the Delaware ; Maryland and YMrginia, on the Potomac. At a 
dinner given by Jefferson, Hamilton found an opportunity to 
settle the state-debt and the national-capital questions at one 
stroke by bringing into play the backwoods custom : '* You help 
me roll my log, and I will help you roll yours." 

Two Virginia members of Congress promised to vote for the 
assumption scheme on condition that a sufficient number of 
northern votes should be cast to secure the passage of a bill per- 
manently locating the national capital on the Potomac. This 
bargain was faithfully carried out. Certain northern members of 
Congress voted for an act which established the headquarters 
of the federal government at Philadelphia for ten years (1790- 
1800) and then fixed them permanently at Washington ; on the 
other hand, certain southern members voted for the assump- 
tion of the state debts. Both measures were successfully carried 
through. 

This last act completed the adoption of Hamilton's plan. The 
whole public debt was funded ^ by issuing new bonds bearing six 
per cent interest, and pledging the chief part of the revenue and 
all of the money received from the sale of government lands at 
the West for their gradual redemption. In three years these new 
bonds rose to par, and the credit of the United States was estab- 
lished at home and abroad. 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 89. 



1791-] thp: union, national development 245 

255. Bank of the United States ; the mint. Hamilton next 
recommended the establishment of a National Bank ^ similar to 
the Bank of North America chartered by the Congress of the 
Confederation (i 781), but which soon became a state institution, 
and which still exists at Philadelphia. 

There were then (1791) but three banks in the entire country, 
and their notes had no circulation outside the cities in which they 
were situated. Most of the people of the states had never even 
seen a bank bill. Hamilton urged that the best interests of the 
government and of trade demanded a sound national paper cur- 
rency, which would pass from hand to hand and be used through- 
out the Union. 

His project roused a hot debate. Some members of Congress 
denounced the measure as a scheme for enriching a few greedy 
capitahsts at the expense of the mass of the people. Others 
declared that it was a political plot for establishing an aristocratic 
institution intended to pave the way to a "monarchy." 

The most serious objection came from Madison and his fol- 
lowers. They denied that the Constitution gave Congress power 
to charter such a bank. The friends of the measure replied that 
the power, though not specifically granted, was clearly implied in 
the necessary right of collecting a revenue and paying off the 
public debt, both of which measures demanded a national cur- 
rency. The bill finally passed by a large majority. Washington 
consulted his cabinet in regard to signing it. Jefferson ^ and 
Randolph opposed the measure as unconstitutional ; Hamilton ^ 
and Knox approved it. Hamilton's arguments prevailed, and 
the Bank of the United States was chartered for twenty years 
(1791-1811). It had its head office at Philadelphia, with numer- 
ous branches. It began business with a capital of $10,000,000 ; 
one fifth was subscribed by the government, and the remainder 
by individuals. The bills of the Bank were redeemable in coin, 
and were receivable for all payments due the United States."* 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 9. 2 ibid., No. 10. 3 Ibid., Xo. 11. 
4 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 98. 



246 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1792-1794 

The Bank advanced money to the government in anticipation of 
taxes, took charge of public deposits, and aided in the collection 
of the revenue. 

The following year (1792) the first national mint was estab- 
lished at Philadelphia (§ 242). Itissued coins (1793), beginning 
with a hundred and fifty tons of coppers, on the admirable deci- 
mal system recommended by Jefferson. The Spanish dollar 
divided into one hundred parts was taken as the monetary unit. 
A double standard was adopted, and the ratio of coinage was fixed 
at fifteen ounces of silver to one of gold. The intention was to 
maintain strict parity of value between the two metals, neither of 
which was then mined in the country. But the market value of 
an ounce of gold was found to be somewhat greater than that 
of fifteen ounces of silver, and in 1834 Congress changed the ratio 
to sixteen to one.^ 

256. Rise of political parties ; Federalists versus Republicans. 
The heated discussion over the establishment of the National 
Bank (§ 255) gave rise (i 792-1 794) to two regularly organized 
political parties, — the Federalists led by Hamilton, and the 
Republicans, by Jefferson. The Federalists were succeeded by 
the National Republicans (1828), the Whigs (1834), and by the 
Republicans (1854) of the present time; the Jeffersonian party 
soon (1796) took the broader title of Democratic-Republicans; 
in time this official party name was popularly shortened to that 
of Democrats (1828). 

Jefferson declared that he and Hamilton were pitted against 
each other " hke two fighting cocks"; but both heartily sup- 
ported the Constitution. Their opposition sprang originally from 
their different interpretation of that instrument. The Federal- 
ists, or " broad-construction " party, led by Hamilton, held that 
the Constitution conferred on the government every " implied 
power " necessary to its action and not expressly reserved to the 
states. The Republicans, or " strict constructionists," led by 
Jefferson, contended that the safety of the people demanded that 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, loi. 



1792-1794] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 247 

the government should be bound by the very letter of the Con- 
stitution, and that every power, which was not specially granted 
to Congress or to the federal authorities, should be reserved to 
the states. 

In this controversy each party could appeal to the Constitution 
itself for support. The Federahsts triumphantly cited what has 
been called the " elastic clause," which confers on Congress 
powers of very extensive range (Appendix, page x, last paragraph of 
§ 8). The Republicans confidently quoted the tenth amendment, 
which lays emphasis on the powers reserved to the states (Appen- 
dix, page xvii). Time, however, showed that the party in office, 
whatever might be its politics, was generally inclined toward ''broad 
construction." On the other hand, the party not in office usually 
tended toward ''strict construction" (§§ 281, 285, 290, 328). 

Socially Hamilton and Jefferson stood in strong contrast. 
Hamilton, like Adams, believed in restricting the exercise of 
political rights to " the rich, the well born, and the able " ; 
Jefferson was opposed to all class privileges, and declared that he 
put his reliance in " the good sense of the people." Hamilton 
was an aristocrat who admired the stability of the English con- 
stitution ; Jefferson, a democrat who sympathized with the French 
Revolution and its proclamation of " the rights of man." The 
violent Republicans said that the Federahsts were galloping 
toward monarchy, and nicknamed them " Monocrats " ; the vio- 
lent Federalists called their opponents " Mobocrats," and declared 
that they were hurrying toward anarchy at breakneck speed. 

Both parties speedily invoked the aid of the press. Fenno's 
Gazette defended the Federalists, while Freneau's Gazette fired 
broadsides in behalf of the Republicans. It was the beginning 
of the modern era in which government by newspaper has come 
to play so conspicuous a part. 

The political issues for many years related largely to such 
economic questions as the Acquisition of Territory, the Tariff, the 
United States Bank, and Internal Improvements. Later, the ques- 
tion of the extension of slavery came to the front. 



248 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1790-1793 

257. Debate on slavery ; the first fugitive-slave law. Meanwhile 
the Quakers and Abolitionists of Pennsylvania had presented peti- 
tions to Congress praying for the suppression of the foreign slave 
trade and for the adoption of measures tending to emancipation. 
These petitions caused intense excitement. Congress, after an 
angry and prolonged debate, resolved that it had no constitutional 
authority to prohibit the importation of negroes (§ 246) before 1808 
(Appendix, page x, § 9) or to interfere with slavery in the states. 

Three years afterward (1793), Congress enacted the first law 
for the recovery of fugitive slaves.^ It was based on a provision 
of the Constitution (Appendix, page xiv, § 2). A slave arrested in 
Massachusetts was rescued and set at hberty. Later, in Vermont, 
a judge refused to send a slave back unless ^his master could pro- 
duce " a bill of sale from the Almighty." An attempt was made 
in Congress to prevent the presentation of abohtion petitions, 
on the ground that they would "drive a wedge into the Union " 
which would split off the Southern States. But it was impossible 
to stop the discussion of this burning question, which was destined 
to go on until finally settled by secession and civil war. 

258. The first census ( 1790) ; the West ; anthracite coal; manu- 
factures ; the ' ' Oregon Country. ' ' The first census (17 90) reported 
a total population of nearly 4,000,000, including more than 650,000 
slaves. Nearly the whole of this population was east of the 
Alleghenies ; but pioneers from the states had long been crossing 
the mountains and making scattered settlements in the western 
wilderness (§137); Pittsburg (§169) was then a thriving town 
of about two hundred houses. Washington saw the importance 
of opening water communication with the West, and used every 
means in his power to accomplish the great work. 

Manasseh Cutler appears to have done more than any one else 
toward securing the freedom clause in the Ordinance of 1787 for 
the government of the Northwest Territory (§237). He suc- 
ceeded in purchasing 5,000,000 acres of government land for the 

1 See Rhodes' United States, I, 24 ; Gordy's Political History of the United 
States, II, 395, 400-401 ; Benton's Debates, I, 417. 



17881791] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 249 

Ohio Company, and General Rufus Putnam (§ 207) went out with 
a band of New England emigrants, who began the settlement of 
Marietta (1788). Late in the same year the building of another 
group of log huts, farther down the river, marked the beginning 
of the city of Cincinnati. Speaking of the beautiful Ohio Valley, 
Washington said, " If I was a young man, I know of no country 
where I should rather fix my habitation." By 1796 the great 




The United States, i 790-1 800 

movement westward had increased to such a degree that a thou- 
sand flatboats loaded with eastern merchandise passed Marietta 
that year on their way down the Ohio.^ 

Hard coal had already been accidentally discovered (1791) 
at Mauch Chunk Mountain in Pennsylvania (§143). The first 
attempts to use this coal for fuel completely failed, and in 
Philadelphia it was taken to mend the roads. Later experiments 
proved that this black stone would burn, and it came slowly into 
use for manufacturing and heating purposes. 



1 See Winsor's Westward Movement, 175. 



250 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1790-1793 

With few exceptions the chief industry of the United States was 
agriculture. Washington in his first message (1790) earnestly 
recommended the encouragement of manufactures ; for he saw 
that if we had to depend on Europe for goods, England would 
be able to hold the United States in subjection to her mills and 
factories. Hamilton took the same view and in his famous report ^ 
on that subject (1791) he declared that, since reciprocity of free 
trade was not then to be expected, it was the duty of Congress to 
stimulate the establishment of manufactures by a system of pro- 
tective duties and bounties ; but no decided action was taken 
until after the War of 18 12. 

Commerce was thriving, and every American vessel was in 
demand. New England shipowners were not only making for- 
tunes in the India trade, but were opening up a traffic in furs 
between the northern Pacific coast and China. Captain Robert 
Gray of Boston, one of the pioneers in that trade, first carried the 
American flag (1790) around the world. Two years later (1792), 
he was the first white man to enter that great river of the West 
which he named the Columbia, thereby securing to the United 
States its original claim to the " Oregon Country." 

259. The cultivation and manufacture of cotton; the cotton gin 
(1793). Before Washington entered office Tench Coxe of Phil- 
adelphia urged southern planters to turn their attention to cotton 
raising. In England improved machines for making cotton cloth 
had created an immense demand for the raw material, which was 
then obtained from the East and the West Indies. 

A few bags of cotton had been exported (i 784) from Charleston 
to Liverpool, but planters found rice and tobacco their most profit- 
able crops. Several cotton mills had been built in New England, but 
their rudely constructed machinery gave little promise of success. 

Subsequently Samuel Slater, a young Enghshman, came to this 
country and, working from memory alone, set up (1790) for Almy 
& Brown of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, faithful copies of the best 
cotton-spinning machines used in the English factories. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 12. 



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1793-] THE UNIOxN, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 25 1 

The next question was how to obtain an abundant supply of 
American cotton. The southern planters were ready to furnish 
it, provided some quick and efficient means could be found for 
separating the seed from the fiber. When done by hand this 
process was tedious and expensive, as it took a negro an entire 
day to clean a single pound for market. In 1793 Eli Whitney 
of Massachusetts invented the cotton gin, which would clean a 
thousand pounds of cotton in a day. 

His machine wrought an industrial revolution at the South, and 
produced economic and political results which were felt through- 
out the Union, (i) It " trebled the value of land " at the South, 
caused an enormous rise in the price of negroes, and stimulated 
rapid settlement of the Gulf States. (2) It made cotton the 
" king " of southern staples. In ten years' time we were supplying 
our own demands and exporting 50,000 bales besides ; yet this was 
only the beginning. (3) Cotton culture encouraged the building 
of a great number of factories at the North and gave employment 
to fleets of vessels engaged in the carrying trade. (4) On the 
other hand, it killed the hope of gradual emancipation, which the 
" P'athers of the Republic " had cherished (§§ 45, 176), since it 
interested both southern and northern capitalists in the profits 
of slave labor and encouraged the flagrant violation of the law 
prohibiting the continuance of the importation of slaves (§§ 246, 
257) after 1808. The result was that, in time, W^hitney's invention 
contributed powerfully to make the maintenance and extension of 
slavery for many years the most prominent and the most dangerous 
question in our political history. 

260. Fears of disunion; second presidential election. Washing- 
ton's first term of office was now drawing to a close. He was 
eager to retire to Mount Vernon. " I would rather," said he, 
" take my spade in my hand and work for my bread than remain 
where I am." But Hamilton and Jefferson, though bitter political 
opponents (§ 256), united in begging him to stand for a second 
term. Hamilton thought that the Union was not yet "firmly 
estabhshed " ; Jefferson feared secession and civil war. He 



252 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1792-1793 

declared in his letters that a " corrupt squadron " of Federalists 
in the eastern states had formed a plot to overthrow the RepubHc 
and set up a monarchy on its ruins. He wrote to Washington : 
" The confidence of the whole country is centered in you. North 
and South will hang together if they have you to hang on." 

Moved by these entreaties Washington consented to become 
a candidate. There was no formal nomination. He was again 
unanimously elected (1792) ; John Adams became a second time 
Vice President ; but a majority of the new House of Representa- 
tives were Jeffersonian Republicans. 

261. News from France; Proclamation of Neutrality (1793). 
Shortly after Washington's second inauguration (1793) news 
arrived that the French Revolutionists had declared war against 
Great Britain. In the course of our own Revolution we had 
made a treaty (1778) with France (§219), which bound both 
nations to an offensive and defensive alliance. By its terms we 
guaranteed Louis X\T his possessions in the West Indies and 
pledged ourselves to shelter French privateers. 

Subsequently Louis XVI was guillotined and the Revolution- 
ists set up a new government. Now that the French monarchy 
had been overturned, the question arose whether we were still 
bound by the treaty we had made with the late king. Were 
we under obligations to take up arms in defense of the French 
Republic, or should we declare ourselves neutral ? 

An immense number of our people, especially the Republicans, 
naturally sympathized with the movement in France which, follow- 
ing our example, had established a commonwealth based on the 
** rights of man." The victories gained by the soldiers of the French 
Republic were celebrated in Boston and Philadelphia with the wild- 
est enthusiasm. The tricolor was displayed side by side with the 
'•stars and stripes," bands played alternately "Yankee Doodle" 
and the '' Marseillaise," and cakes stamped " Liberty and EquaHty " 
were distributed to processions of gayly dressed school children. 

Washington felt the gravity of the crisis — a word might in- 
volve us in a second war with Great Britain before we had fully 



iTiW] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 253 

recovered from the war for independence. The President called a 
cabinet meeting — the first on record — to consider what action 
should be taken. It seemed probable that in such a juncture 
Hamilton and Jefferson would take opposite sides (§ 256); but 
after a prolonged discussion it was unanimously determined that 
we should remain strictly neutral. A few days later, Washington 
issued (1793) a Proclamation of Neutrahty^ announcing that 
decision. 

The Republican opposition press (§ 256) denounced the Proc- 
lamation in the most violent terms. Their journals accused the 
President of deliberately breaking a solemn treaty with a friendly 
power that had helped us in our direst need. They declared that 
Washington had usurped authority delegated to Congress, that he 
hated Republican institutions, and was ambitious to make himself 
king. On the other hand, Washington had such a horror of 
these '* brawlers against the government " and such deep distrust 
of their patriotism that he suggested that it might be expedient 
to exclude them from the army of the United States.^ Hence- 
forth, for some years, America was divided between a French 
party and an Enghsh party, — one shouting for liberty, the other 
for order. Worn out with the abuse which the extreme Repub- 
Hcans heaped upon him, Washington exclaimed that he would 
rather be in his grave than be President. 

262. ''Citizen" Genet. Shortly after the Proclamation of Neu- 
trality was issued (§261) "Citizen" Genet, the minister from 
France, had arrived (April 8, 1793) at Charleston. He was a 
self-sufficient young man, fully conscious of his own importance. 
He seemed to regard the LTnited States not as an independent 
power, but rather as an appendage to the French Republic. 
Without waiting to consult Washington, he forthwith issued com- 
missions to privateers which began capturing British vessels off 
our coast ; he recruited men for the French service ; and asked 
for the immediate payment of our debt to France, although 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 13. 

- See Washington's Works (Ford). XI\', 104 ; Lodge's Washington. II, 256. 



254 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1794 

that payment was not yet due. Many people hailed Genet 
with delight, and numerous so-called " Democratic Clubs " were 
organized in imitation of the French Revolutionary Clubs. . 

The government stopped Genet's privateers and warned him 
not to fit out any more. He was told that he must respect the 
Proclamation of Neutrality. In his rage he publicly accused the 
administration of having basely abandoned the cause of France. 
He threatened to appeal to the people as the true sovereigns in 
America, in the belief that thousands of eager hands were ready 
to drag Washington from his house and force him to resign. The 
President met Genet's mad threats by demanding and obtaining his 
recall (1794). A reaction speedily set in against the hot-headed 
Frenchman, and his influence subsided as rapidly as it had risen. 

263. The Whisky Insurrection; Wayne's victory over the 
Indians. Not long after Genet's recall the government resolved 
to take decided measures for enforcing the excise duty (§ 250) 
in western Pennsylvania, where there was a great number of 
small distilleries. In that section of the state, transportation 
over the mountains was exceedingly difficult, and the farmers 
found it more profitable to have their grain distilled into liquor 
than to try to haul it in bulk to eastern markets. Coin was so 
scarce among the people of that part of the country that whisky 
was generally used for currency, — a gallon jug of it passing for 
a shilling. The excise duty of nine cents a gallon (§ 250) bore 
with great hardship on the whole population of the district. 
They denounced the tax as unconstitutional and oppressive, and 
drove the excise officers out of the country. 

Washington feared that the rioters might threaten " the very 
existence of government." ^ He accordingly dispatched (i 794) an 
army of 15,000 militia to enforce the law. The troops crossed the 
Alleghenies and restored order without bloodshed. It was an 
effective object lesson of the strength of the national government. 

In the meantime an Indian war was raging in the "Ohio Coun- 
try." General Harmar had been defeated, and the next year 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 15. 



PART OF 

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 

inir95 

Showing Indian Cession of Land 
in the Ohio Valley 




I Fort Wayne; 2. Fort Defiance; 3- Fort Adams; 4- Fort Recovery; S- Fort Loramie , 
6 Fort Greenville ; 7. Fort Jefferson ; 8. Fort Harmar. The Connecticut and the Virginia 
Reserves were portions of the original land claims of those States which they reserved when 
thev ceded their territory northwest of the Ohio to the L nited States. _ 

The Ohio Company (see §258) held an immense tract bordering on the river. Connecticut 
ceded her Reserve to the United States in 1800; Virginia did the same in 1852. By the Ireaty 
of 170=; the Indians ceded all lands east and south of the treaty line sho\yn in map, and six- 
teen smaller tracts -the sites of forts and trading posts — west and north of the line. 



1794-1795] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 255 

(1791) General St. Clair, who succeeded hiin, saw his own army cut 
to pieces. Washington then sent out Anthony Wayne, of Revolu- 
tionary fame (§ 224), to conquer a peace. The savages had risen 
with the determination to kill or expel every white settler. They 
now found that they must get the better of " the chief that never 
slept." Late in the summer of 1794 Wayne gained a decisive vic- 
tory at Fallen Timbers, The next year the Indians signed a treaty 
of peace at Greenville, by which they gave up all claim to about 
25,000 square miles of territory. This treaty opened the greater 
part of what is now the state of Ohio to settlement. 

264. Danger of war with England ; impressment of sailors. 
Besides the anxiety caused by the Indians there was serious 
danger of trouble with England. Since that country and France 
had been at war (§ 261) both nations had ordered their cruisers 
to capture American vessels found carrying provisions to either 
belligerent. These decrees threatened to destroy a large part of 
our foreign commerce. England as ''mistress of the seas" could 
of course do us more harm than France, and hence the feeling 
rose higher against her. 

But we had another grievance for which England was alone 
responsible ; this was her assumption of the right of search and im- 
pressment. The English navy was so short-handed that press gangs 
made a business of kidnapping men in the English ports, and the 
royal government issued orders to seize British sailors found in the 
merchant service anywhere on the open ocean. Thousands of these 
sailors, tempted by the high wages we offered, had shipped on our 
vessels, and in many cases had become American citizens. 

England denied the right of these men to leave her service or 
to swear allegiance to the American flag, and claimed them as her 
subjects. British men-of-war constantly stopped our merchant- 
men and mustered their crews on deck for examination. Often it 
was a difficult matter to tell an English sailor from an American. 
Generally speaking, the search was simply a farce, and His Majesty's 
officers carried off as many able-bodied seamen as they wanted 
without troubling themselves about any question of nationality. 



256 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1794-1795 

265. The sixty days' embargo; the Jay treaty (1795). The 
excitement over the action of England was so great that Wash- 
ington feared the country would drift into war. To protect our 
vessels from seizure in case hostilities should be suddenly declared, 
he induced Congress to declare a sixty days' embargo (1794). 
Before the embargo expired Washington sent Chief Justice Jay 
(§ 250) to London to endeavor to negotiate a treaty of amity 
and commerce (§ 249) with Cxreat Britain. 

The five points we especially wished to secure were: (i) the 
renunciation, by England, of the assumed right of search and 
impressment ; (2) the surrender of the frontier forts held by the 
EngHsh (§ 249) ; (3) the grant of unrestricted trade with the British 
West Indies (§ 249) ; (4) the recognition of the right of neutrals 
to claim, as we did, that free ships make " free goods," and were, 
therefore, exempt from seizure ; (5) damages for negroes carried off 
by the British armies at the close of the Revolution (1783), and 
compensation for the injury our commerce had since received. 

Jay succeeded in making a treaty ; but it only partially covered 
the ground, and the commercial articles in it expired, by limita- 
tion, in 1806. The treaty,^ as Jay signed it, provided : (i) that 
Great Britain should, by June i, 1796, give up the posts she 
held on our frontier (§ 249) ; (2) that she should make com- 
pensation for all American vessels which she had seized unlaw- 
fully ; under this clause our merchants eventually received more 
than ^10,000,000 in damages; (3) Great Britain agreed to open 
her ports in the West Indies, but only to vessels of less than 
seventy tons burden. These were all the concessions that Eng- 
land would make ; she positively refused to pay a copper for the 
negroes she had carried off, to listen to our claim that free ships 
should make free goods, or to relinquish her assumed right of 
search and impressment. 

In return for such grants as we obtained we bound ourselves 
to (i) pay all debts due British merchants at the outbreak of 
the American Revolution; (2) to renounce the transjoortation 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 14. 



1795] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 257 

to Europe of West India products, and furthermore, of American 
cotton, of whose growing importance, as an export (§ 259), Jay 
seems to have known nothing. 

266. Action on the Jay treaty ; excitement of the people. The 
Senate of the United States in secret session accepted the treaty 
as a whole, but struck out the article by which we renounced 
our right to unlimited transportation and exportation, and with 
it the privilege of West India trade which was part of that article. 
England agreed to the change. 

The Chambers of Commerce of New York and Boston approved 
the action of the Senate, but large numbers of people throughout 
the country vehemently condemned the treaty, declaring that 
England had got the oyster and had left us the shell. The Repub- 
licans, generally, insisted that for us to be at peace with England 
meant our being at peace with the enemy of France and with the 
friend of tyranny. In Philadelphia an infuriated mob burned a 
copy of the treaty and guillotined an effigy of Jay. In New York, 
Savannah, Charleston, and Portsmouth there were similar riotous 
demonstrations. 

When it was learned that Washington had actually signed (i 795) 
the obnoxious treaty, the excitement rose to its highest pitch. 
The extreme journals of the Republican press accused the Presi- 
dent of treason, threatened him with impeachment, and ridiculed 
him as the "stepfather of his country." Later, the House of 
Representatives threatened to refuse to appropriate the money 
necessary to carry out the terms of the treaty ; but Fisher Ames, in 
what was practically his dying speech,^ persuaded them to accept 
it. Then a reaction set in, and eventually many of those who 
had denounced Jay's work most fiercely admitted that, all things 
considered, he had done well in keeping us from war. 

267. Algiers ; treaty with Spain ; Washington's farewell ad- 
dress ; presidential election; new states. In the autumn (1795) 
we made a treaty with Algiers, at heavy cost, by which w^e bought 
the release of American sailors held in slavery in Africa and secured 

1 See Johnston's American Orations, I, 112. 



258 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i795-i796 

the temporary right of pursuing our commerce in the Mediter- 
ranean without molestation (§ 249). In taking this humiliating 
course we simply followed the example of European nations that 
had long paid tribute to these notorious pirates. 

A Httle later, we negotiated a very important treaty (1795) 
with Spain. By it we secured : (i) the Florida boundary (§ 249) 
as claimed by the United States (see map facing page 252 and 
Appendix, page xxx) ; (2) the free navigation of the Mississippi, 
— a point in dispute which had once threatened to dissolve the 
Union (§ 243) ; (3) the " right of deposit," or storage, at New 
Orleans for American exports and imports.^ 

The following year (1796) Washington issued his farewell 
address.^. He warned his fellow-countrymen of the danger of 
sectional jealousy, and of parties divided by geographical lines, 
and urged the people to devote all their strength to the pres- 
ervation of the Union. 

At the presidential election (1796) the electors, without any 
previous nomination, chose two bitter political opponents, namely, 
John Adams, Federalist, with Thomas Jefferson, Republican, as 
Vice President. The ballot stood 7 1 to 68, and, as Adams obtained 
only a bare majority, the opposition dubbed him the President of 
three votes. The closeness of the contest showed how much the 
Democratic-Republican party had gained. A scurrilous Phila- 
delphia paper dared to congratulate the people on the retire- 
ment of Washington, and denounced him as the man who had 
" debauched " and " deceived " the nation. But the mass of 
the people remained unflinchingly loyal to the great leader who 
had secured our independence, and who in all things sought to 
establish the lasting welfare of the American Republic. 

During Washington's administration three new states, Vermont 
(1791), Kentucky (1792), and Tennessee (1796), had been added, 
making the total number sixteen, namely, eight free and eight 
slave states. The admission of these states was especially signifi- 
cant in two respects: (i) it showed that Congress had adopted 

1 See Hildreth's United States, IV, 569. '^ See Old South Leaflets, No. 4. 



1796-1797] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 259 

the policy of endeavoring to balance the slave and the free states 
in their division of political power ; (2) the first two of these 
new states had framed constitutions which practically established 
"manhood suffrage." That fact stood out in striking contrast to 
the restricted suffrage which still generally prevailed in the original 
thirteen states (§§ 174, 247) ; it was significant of the democratic 
tendencies of the time.^ 

268. Summary. The administration of Washington organized 
the new government on a broad and permanent basis. It funded 
the public debt and thereby established our national credit at 
home and abroad. It forced the Indians to come to terms, and 
so threw open the Ohio Country to peaceful settlement. It 
admitted the first three new states to the Union. It maintained 
neutrality with the hostile powers of Europe, and by treaties 
negotiated with England, Algiers, and Spain it secured the evac- 
uation of the British forts on our frontiers, unrestricted commerce 
with the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, the free navi- 
gation of the Mississippi, and the acknowledgment of the south- 
ern boundary claimed by the LJnited States. The invention of 
the cotton gin opened up new fields of industry, but fastened 
slavery on the South and made its maintenance and extension 
for many years one of the chief objects with a large body of the 
people. 

John Adams (Federalist), One Term (i 797-1 801) 

269. Inaugural address; trouble with France; the "X.Y.Z." 
Papers. The poHtical opponents of Mr. Adams (§ 256) accused 
him of "an awful squinting" toward "a. monarchy." He declared 
in his inaugural address (§ 267) that the Constitution had always 
impressed him as *' a result of good heads prompted by good 
hearts," that it had established the system of government which 
he had ever "most esteemed," and w^hich he believed best 
reflected the " power and majesty of the people." 

1 See Thorpe's Constitutional History of the American People, I, 201-202. 



260 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1797-1798 

The divided administration of Mr. Adams (§ 267) had no 
sooner entered office than trouble broke out with France. The 
ratification of the Jay treaty (§266) had thrown the French 
authorities into a violent rage ; they accused us of truckling to 
England, and retaliated by ordering the confiscation of American 
ships carrying English goods even when not ''contraband of 
war." This action virtually annulled the treaty of 1778 (§ 219), 
which had stipulated that " free ships should make free goods." 
They furthermore decreed that American sailors found on English 
naval vessels — though impressed into the British service — 
should be considered pirates, liable to be hanged. 

Not satisfied with these extreme procedures, the French Direc- 
tory ordered our minister, C. C. Pinckney, to leave Paris, and 
threatened to subject him to pohce supervision while he remained. 
This action forced him to retire to Holland. 

In the hope of preserving peace, the President appointed 
C. C. Pinckney, Elbridge Gerry, and John Marshall to treat with 
France. Talleyrand, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, did not 
receive our commissioners officially, but sent three emissaries to 
confer with them privately. Talleyrand's agents had the effront- 
ery to tell the American envoys that certain passages in President 
Adams' speech to Congress had offended the Directory, and that 
they must be satisfactorily explained away or toned down. They 
next demanded a loan from the United States to the French 
Republic. Finally, they told our envoys that they would be 
expected to make the members of the Directory a handsome 
present. "We must have money," said they, "plenty of money." 
They intimated that unless a quarter of a million of dollars was 
promptly handed over to them, orders would be given to French 
frigates to ravage the American coast. The American commis- 
sioners transmitted full reports of these astounding demands to 
President Adams. He sent (1798) copies of the dispatches to 
Congress, but substituted the letters "X.Y.Z." for the names of 
Talleyrand's three agents ; hence the title, the " X.Y.Z." Papers.^ 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 16. 



1797-1799] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 261 

270. The American war spirit roused; France yields. The pub- 
lication of the "X.Y.Z." dispatches was like the falling of a spark 
in a powder magazine. The war spirit was roused. President 
Adams said, "The United States is not scared "; he furthermore 
declared : " I will never send another minister to France without 
assurances that he will be received, respected, and honored, as 
the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent 
nation." 

Everywhere the cry was heard, " Millions for defense, but not 
one cent for tribute ! " A few Republican newspapers ventured 
to suggest that we might as well buy peace from France as buy 
it from the Algerine pirates (§267), but no heed w^as given to 
them. Congress appointed Washington commander of a provi- 
sional army and, notwithstanding strong opposition, voted (1797) 
to complete without delay the three frigates United States, Con- 
stellation, and Constitution, which w^ere then on the stocks. 

The first of these ships was launched that year (1797). It 
was the beginning of the modern American navy. Orders were 
given for the construction of twelve additional men-of-war, and 
commissions were issued to the commanders of several hundred 
private armed vessels. Intercourse with France was suspended, 
the treaty of 1778 (§ 219) was pronounced void, and the streets 
rang with the new songs of "Hail Columbia" and "Adams and 
Liberty." 

War, though not formally declared, had actually begun. The 
French had captured several hundred American vessels. This 
gave rise to the first " spohation claims " made later by citizens 
of the United States against France.^ In 1799 Commodore 
Truxton of the Constellation captured a French frigate and gained 
the victory over another. When France saw that America was 
not to be bullied into purchasing peace, the adroit Talleyrand 
denied that he had authorized the demands which his agents had 

1 By the treaty of iSoo, made between the United States and France, our govern- 
ment assumed the settlement of the '" spohation claims," but nothing was done in 
the matter until 1891. 



262 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1798 

insolently made for a loan and gifts (§ 269), and pledged his gov- 
ernment to receive any minister we might think proper to send. 

Without consulting his cabinet Adams at once dispatched 
commissioners to Paris. The extreme Federalists were bitterly 
opposed to his making any concessions whatever to a nation that 
they considered to be a pohtical ally of their opponents, the 
Republicans. They now indignantly declared that the President 
had humiliated the United States by sending the commissioners. 
The excitement over this incident split the Federalist party and 
helped to bring about its overthrow. 

The commissioners negotiated a treaty of peace, and the Presi- 
dent said later : '' I desire no other inscription over my grave- 
stone than ' Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the 
responsibility of peace with France in the year 1800.' " 

271. A new naturalization act ; the Alien and the Sedition Acts.' 
Meanwhile, the French Revolution and the reaction against it in 
Europe had driven thousands of refugees to our shores. We 
were glad to welcome many of these men ; but others who came 
were agitators and anarchists. They put liberty and law to shame 
and, like the wild ass of the desert, rushed madly about kicking 
at everything. 

To meet this state of things Congress passed a new naturaliza- 
tion act (1798). It required fourteen years' residence (instead 
of five) for admission to citizenship and ordered all foreign resi- 
dents to be registered. 

This stringent legislation, repealed in 1802, was followed by the 
Alien Act^ (1798), hmited to two years' duration. It was directed 
mainly against French residents, or " renegade aliens," who were 
suspected of plotting to overthrow the government. It empow- 
ered the President to banish, without trial, all aliens whom he 
believed to be dangerous to the peace and safety of the United 
States. Should such persons refuse to obey the order to leave 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 17, 18, 20. 

2 The Alien Act, mentioned above, must not be confounded with the Alien Ene- 
mies Act of 1798, which still remains on the statute books; see Macdonald, No. 19. 



1798] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 263 

the country, they might be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 
three years. This act was never enforced, but several hundred 
Frenchmen took alarm and set sail for Europe. 

Congress next passed the Sedition Act (1798), hmited to less 
than three years and directed mainly against the opposition press. 
It punished, by a fine not exceeding ^2000 and by imprisonment 
not exceeding two years, any person convicted by jury of the 
following offenses : (i) of having written or published " false, 
scandalous, and malicious " statements with intent to bring the 
President or Congress into contempt; (2) of exciting against 
them " the hatred of the good people of the United States " ; (3) 
of stirring up " sedition within the United States." The act 
granted the accused the right of giving *'in evidence in his 
defense the truth of the matter contained in the publication 
charged as a libel " ; this privilege, as we have seen (§ 69), was 
not granted by the common law. The act furthermore provided 
that the jury might " determine the law and the fact." These 
two measures received the support of every leading Federahst, 
Washington included, except John Marshall. 

272. Opposition to the Alien ahd the Sedition Acts. A multitude 
of petitions, signed largely by Republicans, were at once sent to 
Congress praying for the immediate repeal of this legislation.^ The 
petitioners declared that the AHen Act violated the Constitution 
by depriving the states of their right to admit foreigners (Appen- 
dix, page X, § 9), and by denying trial by jury (Appendix, page 
xvi. Art. VI). They called for the repeal of the Sedition Act on 
similar grounds. They considered that it was in direct conflict 
with the first amendment to the Constitution which guaranteed 
the freedom of the press (Appendix, page xvi), though Judge 
McKean of Pennsylvania had pointed out the fact that the lib- 
erty of the press " consists in laying no previous restraint upon 
publication, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter 
when published."'^ 

1 See Johnston's American Orations, I, 131. 

2 See Hildreth's United States, V, 167. 



264 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1798 

The Alien Act remained a dead letter ; but the Sedition Act 
was vigorously enforced in a number of instances. The two most 
notable cases (1798) were those of Matthew Lyon, a Republican 
member of Congress from Vermont, and secondly, that of the 
proprietor of the Ve?vnont Gazette. Lyon was accused of hav- 
ing charged President Adams with " ridiculous pomp " and " self- 
ish avarice." He had also publicly read a letter from abroad 
in which the writer wondered why Congress did not send the 
President to a " madhouse." Lyon was convicted, sentenced to 
four months' imprisonment, and condemned to pay a fine of 
$1000. The proprietor of the Gazette made some sharp com- 
ments on this sentence, and he was fined and sent to the same 
" Federal Bastille" where the unfortunate Lyon had nearly frozen 
in his cell. When their sentences expired both offenders received 
an enthusiastic public reception from those who regarded them as 
martyrs in the cause of Republican liberty. 

273. The Kentucky and Virginia nullification resolutions.^ In 
the South the opposition to the Alien and the Sedition Acts took 
a very serious form. Jefferson, under a pledge of " profound 
secrecy," drew up a series of resolutions which the Legislature 
of Kentucky adopted, with some slight changes (1798). He 
believed that the makers of these two laws deliberately intended 
to violate the Constitution, overthrow the Republic, and prepare 
the way for the establishment of a monarchy. The Kentucky 
Resolutions declared that whenever "■ the general government 
assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, 
and of no force." Virginia followed with resolutions drawn by 
Madison, who had been one of the foremost Federalists (§ 244), 
but who had now gone over to the Republicans. 

They affirmed that when the federal government exceeds its 
authority, the "states" (Madison was careful to use the plural) 
have the right *' to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil." 
Both sets of resolutions professed entire loyalty to the Republic ; 
but both distinctly declared that they regarded the Union simply 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 20-23. 



1798-1799 



] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 265 



as a "compact" made between "sovereign states," and that no 
"common judge" existed to determine disputes between them 
and the national government. 

Kentucky and Virginia appealed to their fourteen sister states 
to sustain them. Seven replied.^ They denied the right of a state 
to sit in judgment on a federal law ; and Rhode Island, Massa- 
chusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont declared that 
the Supreme Court of the United States alone had authority to 
decide whether an act of Congress was or was not constitutional. 

The following year (1799) the Legislature of Kentucky reaf- 
firmed its original resolutions in stronger form, and declared its 
conviction that "nullification" was the "rightful remedy"; but 
having stated this principle, the Legislature prudently added, 
" This commonwealth will bow to the laws of the Union." Many 
years later (1852, 1856), the Democratic party indorsed these 
resolutions in its political platforms (§§ 418, 431). 

After Jefferson's death South Carolina did actually proceed 
(1831) to nullify an act of Congress; but Madison then was 
the first to protest against the " colossal heresy " of a state's 
presuming to set the federal government at defiance. 

When South Carolina reaffirmed the Virginia and Kentucky 
nullification resolutions she simply acted in the same spirit shown 
by Pennsylvania in 18 10, by Connecticut in 181 2, by the Hart- 
ford Convention in 18 14, by Ohio in 182 1, by Georgia in 1828 
(§§ 310, 340, 416). Later, many northern states practically nulli- 
fied an act of Congress — the Fugitive Slave Act — when they 
passed their " Personal Liberty Laws." ^ 

274. Death of Washington ; the new national capitol ; the 
presidential election. Near the close of the century (1799) the 
country was called to mourn the sudden death of Washington. 
In announcing this to Congress, John Marshall spoke of him, in 
Lee's words, as the man who stood " first in war, first in peace, 
and first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens." ^ 

1 See Elliot's Debates on the Constitution, etc., IV, 558. 

2 See E. P. Powell's Nullification. 3 See Marshall's Life of Washington, V, 766. 



266 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I8OO-I8OI 

The next Congress assembled (1800) in the unfinished national 
capitol which was rising on the banks of the Potomac, in the city 
named in honor of the great leader who had gone to his reward. 

The Federalist party was rent by dissensions (§ 270). In 
the presidential election the candidates of both parties were now 
nominated, for the first time, by Congressional caucuses. This 
custom was henceforth kept up until 1824. Adams and C. C. 
Pinckney, the rival FederaKst candidates, received a smaller 
number of electoral votes than Aaron Burr and Jefferson, the 
Democratic-Repubhcan (§ 256) candidates, each of whom re- 
ceived seventy-three electoral votes. This tie threw the election 
into the House of Representatives (Appendix, page xi), which was 
strongly Federalist, but which could not agree to unite on either 
Adams or Pinckney. After balloting for a week, ten votes were 
cast for Jefferson and four for Burr ; under the Constitution, as 
it then stood (§247), this made Jefferson President and Burr 
Vice President of the United States. 

275. The " midnight judges " ; fall of the Federalists. It was 
known that the next Congress would have a large Democratic- 
Republican majority. The FederaHst Congress, then in session, 
passed (1801) a Judiciary Act creating eighteen new judges for 
federal circuit courts. During the last few weeks of his presi- 
dency Mr. Adams was busy signing commissions for these judges, 
whom he selected from his own party. It was currently reported 
that he was occupied in this work up to the last hours of the last 
night of his administration, and the opposition nicknamed the 
men he had chosen *' the midnight judges." Jefferson declared 
that the defeated Federalists had "retreated into the judiciary 
as a stronghold." From that "stronghold" he was determined 
to dislodge them (§ 279). 

The office of Chief Justice having become vacant. President 
Adams appointed John Marshall, a man of " majestic intellect," 
to that position. He held it with honor to himself and to the 
nation for the next thirty-five years. His masterly decisions on 
constitutional points favored the " broad-construction " theory 



LEADING CONSTITUTIONAL CASES 

Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States (1793-1835) 

When Chief-Justice Marshall took his seat in the Supreme 
Court of the United States in 1801, "the nation, the Consti- 
tution, and the laws were in their infancy." Judge Story says 
that scarcely more than two or three questions of consti- 
tutional law had ever engaged the attention of that Court. 

Of these the case of Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) was the most 
important. The Court, Chief-Justice Jay presiding, then 



^/S?S5^g 




John Marshall. 

■ asserted its right to hear the suit, on appeal, of a citizen of 
I one State against another State, and to enter judgment against 
! that State ; but the right was promptly taken away by the 
Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution (1798) (§ 242). 

I. Chief-Justice Marshall's first important constitutional 
decision was made in the case of Marbury v. Madison (1803). 
The Court then declared that Congress was powerless to 
enact a law conflicting with the Constitution. This decision 
has never since been questioned, 
I II. Sixteen years later the case of McCulloch v. Maryland was 
argued (1819). The Court then took its stand in the most posi- 
tive manner on the "broad construction" (§§256,277) of the 



Constitution. It declared that it possessed full authority to 
annul a State law which conflicted with the " implied powers " 
of the Constitution and with those of the Federal government. 

III. Later in the same year, the Court by its decision in the 
Dartmouth College case (1819) limited the power of a State to 
set aside a contract. 

IV. In a fourth leading case, that of Cohens v. Virginia (1821), 
the Court asserted its right to hear suits brought on appeal 
from the State courts, and to act as a final tribunal in such 
cases. In rendering this decision Chief-Justice Marshall inci- 
dentally took occasion to condemn the doctrines of nullification 
and secession. He declared that the United States has the 
right to control all individuals or State governments within 
its boundaries. 

V. Finally, in the case of the American Insurance Co. v. Canter 
(1828), the Court declared that "the Government possesses 
the power of acquiring territory, either by conquest or by 
treaty." 

These, and kindred decisions,^ extending over a space of 
more than thirty-four years, fully entitled Chief-Justice Mar- 
shall- to be called "the second maker of the Constitution," 
for he, more than any other man of his day, created "con- 
stitutional government, as we now understand that term." 
Finally, as Judge Landon remarks, " It is plain now that we 
are largely indebted to the Court for our continued existence 
as a nation, and for the harmony, stability, excellence, and 
success of our Federal system." 

1 Several of these decisions (as in that of McCulloch v. Maryland) upheld 
the powers of Congress, e.g. Osborn v. the Bank of the United States. Others 
(as in Cohens v. Virgiiiia) asserted the jurisdiction of the Court, e.g. Martin 
V. Hunter'' s Lessees. Finally, a number of others (as in the Dartmouth Col- 
lege case) set aside State laws which conflicted with the Federal Constitu- 
tion, e.g. JJjiited States v. Peters or the Olmstead case, Fletcher v. Peck, and 
Gibbons v. Ogden. See a classified list of these cases in McMaster's " United 
States," V, 412. 

In some of the last-mentioned decisions the States " struck back," and 
declined to recognize the jurisdiction of the Court. Thus Georgia (1831- 
1832) positively refused to abide by its decision or to obey its mandate (§ 340). 
That State took the ground that it had sovereign power to annul all laws 
and ordinances made by the Cherokee Indians within its borders, and to cut 
up their territory and annex it. The Supreme Court of the United States 
denied that Georgia could constitutionally exercise such power, and the State 
defied its authority. President Jackson not only took no steps to uphold 
the Court, but was reported to have said : " John Marshall has made his 
decision ; now let him enforce it." See Von Hoist's " Constitutional History 
of the United States," I, 448-458. 

2 See Magruder's " Life of Marshall " ; Van Santvoord's " Lives of the 
Chief-Justices of the United States"; Dr. Henry Hitchcock's lecture on 
Chief-Justice Marshall in the Political Science Lectures of the University 
of Michigan for 1889; Carson's "History of the Supreme Court of the 
United States," and Landon's " Constitutional History of the United States " 
(revised edition). 



1801] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 267 

(§ 256); the importance of these decisions gained for him the 
title of the " second maker " of the Constitution (see an abstract 
of these decisions opposite, page 266). 

The passage of the Alien and the Sedition Laws (§ 271), 
joined to Adams' peace policy toward France (§ 270), sapped the 
strength of the Federalist party, and with the election of Jeffer- 
son it fell, never to rise again as a national power.^ That party 
had never trusted the mass of the people and had never been 
trusted by them ; but none the less it had done a great and last- 
ing work. It had organized the federal government. Hamilton, 
Adams, and Marshall were among its leaders, and Washington 
sympathized largely with their views. They were conservatives, 
and deemed it prudent to make haste slowly ; but they have 
never been surpassed in devotion to what they believed to be 
the highest welfare of the American Republic. 

276. Summary. The principal events of Adams' administra- 
tion were: (i) the difficulty with France, represented by the 
"X.Y.Z." Papers, followed by a short war and ending with a 
treaty of peace ; (2) the passage of the new Naturahzation Act, 
followed by the Alien and the Sedition Acts ; (3) the Kentucky 
and \'irginia Nullification Resolutions ; (4) the death of Washing- 
ton, and the fall of the Federalist party. 

Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican), Two 
Terms (1801-1809) 

277. Jefferson and "political revolution." Jefferson (§256) 
regarded his election (§ 274) as a " political revolution." It was, 
he said, " as real a revolution in the principles of our government 
as that of 1776 was in its form." The Federalists had held con- 
trol for twelve years; for the next forty years the opposite party 
was to stand at the helm and, in Jefferson's words, put the ship 
on her " Republican tack." Henceforth there were to be " no 

J See Hart's American History told by Contemporaries (" The Wail of a Feder 
ali^t Org^n"), III, No, roj. 



268 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [isoi 

more coaches-and-six, no more court-dress, no more levees," or 
" half-monarchical state," as in the days of Washington, but only 
plain democratic simplicity. 

The inauguration ^ at what was called the " palace " — in reality 
a " palace in the woods " — was the first which took place in the 
permanent capital of the nation. The new President delivered a 
masterly address in which he endeavored to conciliate the defeated 
party. It marked the transfer of power from the conservative 
Federalists who had successfully organized the government to the 
Democratic- Repubhcan party. The first believed in the '' broad 
construction " of the Constitution (§ 256), in Hmited suffrage, and 
laid stress on national sovereignty ; the second advocated " strict 
construction" (§256) and favored manhood suffrage (§267); 
Jefferson, its founder, was a zealous advocate of state rights, or 
what was later called state sovereignty (§ 273). 

These opposite political tendencies were personified in the 
President elect and Chief Justice Marshall (§ 275) as they met 
face to face on the 4th of March, 1801, one to administer, the 
other to take, the oath of office (Appendix, page xii). Jefferson, 
as a Democrat, was "bent on restricting the power of the national 
government in the interests of human liberty"; Marshall, as a 
Federalist, was resolved to enlarge that power " in the interests 
of justice and nationality." 

278. The United States in 1801 ; material obstacles to union. 
The second census (1800) showed an increase of over thirty-five 
per cent (§258). It reported the total population of the United 
States, including nearly 900,000 slaves, at a little over 5,300,000, 
or less than the single states of New York or Pennsylvania have 
to-day. The entire country west of the Alleghenies was popularly 
known as the "Wilderness"; it had perhaps 500,000 settlers. 
They belonged to the pioneer class ; they had the log-cabin virtues ; 
they were full of energy, self-reliance, and indomitable daring. 
In a very large degree those qualities have made America what it 
is to-day. The West attracted a steady stream of emigrants, but 

I See Johnston's American Orations, I, 155, 




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269 



2/0 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1801- 

the region was so vast that Jefferson thought it might require a 
" thousand generations " to fill it. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Knox- 
ville, and Louisville were slowly gaining ground. Nashville was 
then the farthest outpost in the southwest. In the northwest less 
progress had been made, and it was not until three years later 
(1804) that Fort Dearborn was erected as a frontier defense on 
the ground where Chicago now stands. 

Facilities for travel and transportation had not essentially im- 
proved since Columbus first set foot on the shores of the New 
World. Only three roads had been cut through the forest to 
the West. The northern route led to Pittsburg, the middle route 
to the Kanawha, a branch of the Ohio, the southern to, and 
through, the Cumberland Gap. These roads, which had originally 
been *' blazed " trails, were of the roughest sort. In point of time 
it was actually farther from New York City to the Mississippi then 
than it is now from New York to Japan. The long mountain 
range which separated the eastern from the western settlements 
seemed to many the geographical limit of the Republic. Nature 
had apparently allied the West with the Mississippi, and, unless 
canals could be cut between the Atlantic states and the section 
beyond the Appalachians, it was difficult to see how both could 
be held together under a single central government. 

Statesmen like Fisher Ames did not hesitate to declare, *' Our 
country is too big for union"; and Jefferson, notwithstanding his 
ardent patriotism, said, *' Whether we remain in one confederacy 
or form into Atlantic and Mississippi Confederations I believe is 
not very important to the happiness of either party." 

279. Appointments to office ; repeal of Federalist laws ; admission 
of Ohio. Jefferson had no sooner come into power than he was beset 
with applications for office. His first intention was to let those 
who held positions remain undisturbed. *' Probably," said he, 
" not twenty will be removed, and those only for doing what they 
ought not to have done." But a Htde later he felt that he must 
yield to pressure and give his own party " a due participation of 
office," from which, he declared, they had been wholly excluded. 



1801-1803] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 27 1 

The only way to do this was to remove a certain proportion of 
Federalists ; for, said he, "few die and none resign." He declared 
that as soon as he had secured to the Republicans *' their just 
share," he should make no more appointments for party purposes, 
but " gladly return " to that state of things when the only ques- 
tions respecting a candidate would be: " Is he honest? Is he 
capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?" 

In the course of the first fourteen months the President made 
only sixteen removals without showing cause, and in the whole 
course of his administration he made, according to Von Hoist, but 
thirty-nine. Other authorities claim that this estimation is far too 
low; and Jefferson himself stated in 1803 that out of 316 offices 
only 130 continued to be " held by FederaHsts." 

In its turn Congress proceeded to pass the sponge over the 
slate of recent Federalist legislation. It repealed the Judiciary, 
Naturalization, and Excise acts (§§ 275, 271, 250). The obnox- 
ious Ahen and Sedition Laws had already expired by limitation 
(§271). Congress next passed the twelfth amendment to the 
Constitution (Appendix, page xvii). It changed the form of the 
presidential election to that which has ever since been followed. 

Early in 1803 the admission of Ohio raised the total number 
of states to seventeen. Like two of the three new states which 
had preceded it (§267), Ohio declared in favor of a system of 
pure " manhood suffrage." The old states were meanwhile recon- 
structing their constitutions on the same broad lines. The change 
was in the direction of Jefferson's principle of trusting everything to 
" the good sense of the people " (§ 256). It meant that the time 
was coming when the votes of the masses, rather than those of the 
select few, would control the destinies of the Republic.^ In fact 
less than two generations later the property qualification for the elec- 
tive franchise had been practically abolished throughout the Union. 

Congress made a grant of school lands to the state of Ohio, 
which was the first of the kind in our history. It marked the 

1 See Gordy's Political History of the United States, II, 338-340; Thorpe's Con- 
stitutional History of the American People, I, ch. iii, vii. 



[1801-1803 

beginning of that wise policy " by which public education became 
an essential part of Commonwealth organization." In the West, 
the State took upon itself the responsibility of giving to all children 
the advantage of public instruction.^ 

280. Spain cedes Louisiana to France; we purchase the province 
(1803). Not long after Jefferson's inauguration news was received 
that Napoleon had forced Spain to cede Louisiana (§172) to 



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The United States in 1803 after the Purchase of Louisiana, 
WITH Boundary of 1819 (§ 318) 

West Florida, as far eastward as the Perdido River, was claimed as part of the 
purchase. In 1802 Congress added all that remained of the Northwest Territory 
(§ 237) to Indiana Territory (see map facing page 268). The " Oregon Country " 
was held jointly with Great Britain 

France. This change hemmed us in between two powers hos- 
tile to each other, — Great Britain on the north and France on 
the south and west. Jefferson fully realized the gravity of the 
situation. He wrote to Chancellor Livingston, our minister at 
Paris, saying that although we had always regarded France as 
our "friend," yet we could no longer do so if she held New 

1 See Thorpe's Constitutional History of the American People, I. 229, 230. 



1803] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 273 

Orleans. The possession of that spot, added Jefferson, makes 
her '* our natural enemy." Through New Orleans, said he, the 
produce of three eighths of our territory " must pass to market. 
France, placing herself in that door, assumes to us the attitude 
of defiance." 

It was the intention of Bonaparte to establish a military des- 
potism at New Orleans. "From that moment," said Jefferson, 
"we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." Much 
as he disliked war, he declared that, rather than abandon our 
claim to the free navigation of the Mississippi and see the west- 
ern states severed from the Union, we would draw the sword on 
France and " throw away the scabbard." 

But the President hoped to come to an amicable understanding 
with Bonaparte. " Peace," said he, " is our passion." Monroe 
was dispatched to Paris to join Livingston. The commissioners 
were instructed to offer as high as $10,000,000 for New Orleans 
and the East and West Floridas, or at any rate to secure, if 
possible, the permanent "right of deposit" (§267) at New 
Orleans. Before Monroe reached his destination Bonaparte had 
resolved to renew the war with England (§ 264), and to our 
amazement offered to sell us not only New Orleans but the 
entire province of Louisiana. The commissioners negotiated a 
treaty^ of purchase for $15,000,000. Thus at one stroke of the 
pen (1803), as Jefferson declared, we "more than doubled 
the area of the Republic." The purchase has been called the 
greatest single real-estate transaction recorded in modern his- 
tory. It practically settled the question of the United States 
becoming a continental power. Out of the magnificent domain 
we then acquired, have been carved twelve states and two 
territories. 

The boundaries of Louisiana were not clearly defined, and it 
was a question whether Texas or any part of West Florida was 
included in the purchase. The treaty, as it was finally agreed 
upon, gave us absolute control of the Mississippi and secured 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 24. 



274 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I803 

to us the whole region west of that river and north of Texas as 
far back as the Rocky Mountains. Eventually the area of our 
new territory was found to be nearly 1,172,000 square miles. 
Later (18 10), we relinquished all claim to Texas and seized West 
Florida. The foreign population of Louisiana held a number of 
thousand slaves at New Orleans and St. Louis. The purchase 
treaty virtually recognized their legal right to such property and 
guaranteed that all free white inhabitants of the territory should 
be incorporated as citizens of the Union. The Territorial Act of 
1804 confirmed these rights.^ 

281. Question of the constitutionality of the Louisiana purchase. 
Jefferson, as the leader of the "strict-construction" party (§ 256), 
admitted that the Constitution did not authorize the government 
to purchase new territory, yet he felt constrained to sign the 
treaty. He believed that the preservation of the Union depended 
on keeping the navigation of the Mississippi open. There was 
no time to discuss questions of limitations of authority, and the 
President resolved, as he said, " to shut up " the Constitution 
until the acquisition of Louisiana should be ratified ; then he pro- 
posed asking the nation to justify the act by an amendment to 
that instrument, but the amendment was never called for. A 
quarter of a century later, the Supreme Court decided (1828) that 
the national government had the Constitutional power to acquire 
new territory " either by conquest or by treaty." ^ 

Notwithstanding their sympathies with "broad construction" 
(§ 256), the extreme Federalists now opposed the ratification of 
the purchase of "an unmeasured world beyond the Mississippi." 
They declared that the introduction of a great number of for- 
eigners, " through a breach of the Constitution," would destroy 
the existing political balance and render the New England states 
insignificant. Others feared that it would increase the power of 

1 See Semple's American History and its Geographic Conditions, ch. vi ; Adams' 
United States, II, ch. ii-vi ; Hosmer's Louisiana Purchase ; Roosevelt's The Win- 
ning of the West, III, 261 ; McMaster's United States, III, 13 ; American Historical 
Review, April, 1904. 

2 See Abstract of Constitutional Decisions, facing page 266. 



1803- 



THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 275 



slave representation, while at the same time it would dangerously 
weaken us by greatly extending the line which we must defend 
against foreign invasion. Finally, the question was raised whether 
the federal government could successfully exert its power over 
such an enormous territory. 

282. Secession plot; Quincy's threat; results of the Louisiana 
purchase. In consequence of the purchase of Louisiana a few 
ultra Federalists endeavored with the help of Aaron Burr, who was 
then Vice President (§ 274), to organize a plot for separating New 
England and New York from the LTnion. Their purpose was to 
form an independent Northern Confederacy ; but the conspiracy 
failed to receive any substantial encouragement. 

When the question of the admission of the lower part of Louisiana 
as a slave state (§ 280) came up for debate (181 1), Josiah Quincy 
of Massachusetts violently opposed it in the House. He said : 
" If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is Virtually 
a dissolution of the Union ; that it will free the states from their 
moral obligation ; and as it will be the right of all, so it will be 
the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably 
if they can, violently if they must." ^ 

Senator Grundy of Tennessee admitted, a Httle later, that when 
the recently acquired territory should become ''fully peopled" 
the northern states would " lose their power " and would then be 
at the mercy of the southern section. This was the danger which 
the representative from Massachusetts had in mind. His speech 
was the first unmistakable announcement in Congress of the 
doctrine of secession. But Quincy in this respect practically 
stood alone, for Massachusetts gave its assent to the admission of 
the new state. 

In reviewing the acquisition of the province of Louisiana, we 
see that it eventually had five important results : (i) it secured to 
us the port of New Orleans, the entire control of the Mississippi, 
and more than doubled the area of the United States; (2) it 
strengthened the bond of union in the southwest ; (3) it gave new 

1 See Johnston's American Orations, I, 180. 



2j6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I803-I805 

force to arguments for "internal improvements," — the building 
of roads and canals to connect the East and the West ; and, taken 
in connection with the acquisition of California, it later made the 
Pacific railway a necessity ; (4) it added a foreign slaveholding 
population at New Orleans and at St. Louis (§ 280), and it opened 
up an immense field for the " conflict between slavery and free- 
dom " ; (5) finally, it weakened '' strict construction " (§ 256) and 
encouraged the opposite interpretation of the Constitution. 

283. Expedition of Lewis and Clark (1804-1806). In the 
spring following the purchase of the province of Louisiana, Jeffer- 
son sent out Lewis and Clark to explore the Missouri to its 
source and to push forward to the Pacific. The expedition 
started in three boats from St. Louis (May, 1804). The party 
spent the entire summer laboriously working their way upstream 
against the powerful current, their average progress not exceed- 
ing nine miles a day. At the end of the season they went into 
winter quarters at a point not very far above the site of the 
present city of Bismarck, North Dakota. 

The next spring, taking an Indian woman for their guide, they 
set out again on their journey through the great " Lone Land." 
By midsummer they had passed through the wild gorge of the 
Missouri known as the "Gates of the Rocky Mountains," and 
soon afterward reached the site of what is now the capital of 
Montana. In August (1805) they arrived at a point where they 
could bestride the headwaters of that great stream which they 
had so long been ascending and which had seemed to them well- 
nigh endless. 

A few days later, they stood on the " Crown of the Continent," 
in the midst of that wonderful knot of ridges and peaks from 
which rise the Columbia (§ 258), the Colorado, and the Missouri. 
Early in October (1805) they embarked in log canoes on the 
Clear Water, a tributary of the Columbia, and began to paddle 
their way downward toward the setting sun. In November they 
heard the roar of breakers through the fog; when it Hfted they 
beheld the Pacific, — " that ocean," says Lewis, which was " the 



1805-1806] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 2// 

object of all our labors, the reward of all our anxieties." On 
their return Clark's party struck southward and came down the 
valley of the Yellowstone ; the joint expedition reached St. Louis 
in the autumn of 1806 (see map, § 405). 

In the course of about two years and a half the exploring party 
had traveled over eight thousand miles, through a region which 
no white man was known to have crossed before. They had found 
practicable passes through the Rocky Mountains, confirmed our 
claim to the "Oregon Country" (§ 258), and opened the way to the 
valley of the Columbia and the Pacific slope. Furthermore, they 
furnished us with our first definite knowledge of that magnificent 
territory in which twelve great states, with a population of many 
millions, have since "arisen in the wilderness." At the same time 
Lieutenant Z. M. Pike explored the sources of the Mississippi 
(1806) and measured the lofty peak in the Rocky Mountains 
which now bears his name. 

284. Prosperity of the country ; the presidential election. When 
Jefferson entered office the national debt amounted to nearly 
$83,000,000, and the rate of taxation was heavy ; by judicious 
management Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, paid off a large 
part of the debt, and at the same time induced Congress to repeal 
the excise duties (§250). Meanwhile commerce was making rapid 
gains and the country generally enjoyed a high degree of prosperity. 

The Democratic- Republicans nominated Jefferson (1804) for a 
second term ; he was elected under the new system established 
by the twelfth amendment to the Constitution (§ 279) (with 
George Clinton as Vice President), by an overwhelming majority 
over C. C. Pinckney, the Federahst candidate, the electoral vote 
standing 162 to 14. 

Jefferson said, "the people in mass have joined us" ; the truth 
was that a fusion of parties had gradually taken place, the 
Federalists having been Republicanized, and the Republicans or 
Democrats Federalized. 

285. Jefferson's second inauguration ( 1805) ; '* internal improve- 
ments" ; peace with Tripoli. In his second inaugural Jeft'erson 



278 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I805- 

bade the people look forward to the extinction of the entire public 
debt. Then, he said, an amendment to the Constitution would 
enable Congress to expend the surplus revenue in making roads, 
canals, and other "internal improvements." The next year (1806) 
a Republican Congress, without waiting for such an amendment, 
appropriated $30,000 toward constructing " a national road " from 
Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio River; but the first mile of 
this famous highway (§ 328) was not begim until five years later 
(181 1). Never before had the general government undertaken 
any work of this kind. 

Before the year closed our navy (§ 270) gained a brilliant 
triumph over the Barbary pirates (§§ 249, 267). When near the 
end of Adams' administration Captain Bainbridge was sent out 
(1800) to pay the Dey of Algiers his annual tribute (§ 267), 
that potentate treated him with such insolence that Bainbridge 
indignantly wrote, "I hope I shall never again be sent to Algiers 
with tribute unless I am authorized to deliver it from the mouths 
of our cannon." Shortly afterward the pasha of Tripoh declared 
war against us because we had not promptly met his exorbitant 
demands for money. 

Jefferson dispatched a squadron to blockade Tripoli; the 
vessels drew too much water to be very effective, but Rodgers, 
Decatur, and Hull made themselves a memorable record. When 
the squadron was reenforced with lighter vessels, Commodore 
Preble (1805) speedily compelled the pasha to drop his demands 
and beg for peace ; a final treaty, however, was not made with 
the Barbary states until a number of years later (18 14). 

The pope was especially pleased at the chastisement which 
Preble had inflicted on the Mohammedan corsairs, and declared 
that the American officer had done more to humble those insolent 
barbarians than all the Christian nations of Europe had ever 
accomplished. 

But the most important result of the war with the pirates of 
the Mediterranean was that it served as a training school to our 
victorious naval commanders for the War of 181 2. 



1807-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 279 

286. The first steamboat on the Hudson (1807) and in the West 
(1811). We have seen (§§258, 278) that one of the most per- 
plexing questions in the growth of the United States was how 
to secure cheap and rapid communication and transportation 
between the East and West. The political unity of the nation 
seemed to depend on the successful solution of this difficult 
problem. It had taken Lewis and Clark (§ 283) a full year to 
cross the national territory west of the Mississippi. There was 
something disheartening in the thought of endeavoring to bring 
such an unbounded wilderness under the control of a government 
which had its capital on the Atlantic slope, thousands of miles 
away. Few men of that time seriously believed that a Union 
so vast could be permanently maintained ; certainly Jefferson did 
not, for one (§ 278). 

But an inventor had already devised the first successful means 
for navigating the great rivers and inland waters of the United 
States. His work would go far toward making it possible to unite 
the two sides of the continent. 

Many experiments had already been made in propelling boats 
by steam. At one time John Fitch and Oliver Evans seemed 
likely to accomplish it, but they were doomed to disappointment. 
Latrobe, the most eminent engineer in the country, reported as 
late as 1803 that nothing had been done which promised prac- 
tical success. Fitch came nearest to it ; but lack of capital 
forced him to abandon the field, and in despair he took his own 
life. He left this prophecy : " The day will come when some 
more powerful man will get fame and riches by my invention." 
Robert Fulton was that "more powerful man." Aided by Chan- 
cellor Livingston's purse, he built and launched the Clej-mont 
at New York. The vessel was a side-wheel steamboat equipped 
with an engine imported from England. Late in the summer of 
1807 Fulton made his first voyage up the Hudson to Albany.^ 

Saihng vessels usually took three days to reach that' point ; 
Fulton accomplished the journey in thirty-two hours. The 
1 See Old South Leaflets, No. 108. 



28o THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1806- 

problem was solved ; a vessel had at last been constructed that 
would push its way against wind, tide, and current. The steam- 
boat soon began making regular trips on the Hudson, and Fulton 
and Livingston secured the monopoly of steam navigation in 
New York state for twenty years. 

In i8i I Fulton launched a steamboat at Pittsburg which made 
the voyage to New Orleans. Within seven years from that date 
steamboats were carrying passengers and freight not only on the 
Mississippi and its tributaries, but on several of the Great Lakes. 
Fulton said with truth that he had given the country '' the most 
efficient instrument yet conceived for developing the West," 
or, as he might have added, for maintaining the stability of the 
Union. 

287. The Burr conspiracy. Singularly enough, while Fulton 
was occupied in perfecting the material means for binding the 
country together, a formidable plot against the nation's life was 
discovered. Aaron Burr, while Vice President of the United 
States (§ 274), challenged Hamilton, his pohtical opponent and 
personal enemy, and killed him in a duel (1804). Burr was 
indicted for murder and fled South to escape arrest. His pros- 
pects were ruined and he became desperate. Miranda, a citizen 
of one of the Spanish provinces in South America, was then con- 
cocting a scheme for overthrowing the power of Spain on the 
American continent. Miranda's expedition may have suggested 
the project which Burr conceived. 

Burr's plan was to raise an armed force in the Southwest, drive 
out the Spaniards from Mexico, and establish a great Southern 
Confederacy composed of the states and territories west of the 
Alleghenies, united with the Mexican possessions. He hoped to 
get the aid of Great Britain in carrying out this gigantic plot, 
and he appears to have had no difficulty in persuading James Wil- 
kinson, general in chief of the United States army, to join him.^ 
Burr had made the acquaintance of an Irish gentleman named 
Blennerhasset who resided on Blennerhasset Island in the Ohio, 

1 See Winsor's America, VII, 338 ; Adams' United States, III, ch. x-xiv. 




Fitch's Steamboat, 1785 
John Fitch's Letter on his Steamboat 

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180&-1807] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 28 1 

some distance southwest of Marietta. The smooth-tongued con- 
spirator easily induced the latter to mortgage his estate to raise 
money for carrying out the scheme. By this means Burr obtained 
boats and arms and recruited about a hundred men. 

General Wilkinson, who was later charged with being Burr's 
accomplice, was then at New Orleans; he sent information of the 
plot to the President. Jefferson issued a proclamation (1806) 
ordering the arrest of the expedition. Burr hastily disbanded his 
men at Natchez and took to the woods. He was speedily appre- 
hended^ and w^as tried (1807) for treason before Chief Justice 
Marshall. Marshall ruled that no satisfactory evidence of overt 
treason had been offered, and the jury brought in a verdict of 
" not guilty." Burr soon afterward disappeared from public life 
and died in obscurity in New York many years later. 

288. The French and English war and American commerce. 
After a brief peace (§§ 261, 280) Bonaparte and George III had 
resumed hostilities (1803). England fought in behalf of consti- 
tutional liberty and for self-preservation ; Bonaparte fought for 
military despotism and to extend the power of France. Fleets 
of English cruisers swept the French merchantmen from the seas, 
and thus threw all trade between France and her colonies into 
the hands of American shipowners. In order to prevent France 
from getting the relief given by our merchant vessels, England 
revived the "Rule of 1756." That rule declared that no Euro- 
pean nation which shut its colonial ports against freedom of trade 
in time of peace (as France did in common with other mother- 
countries) should be permitted to open its ports to direct neutral 
trade in time of war. 

By enforcing that regulation England hoped to destroy all 
commercial communication between France and her foreign 
possessions, and so cripple her enemy's resources for carrying 
on the war. This measure, however, proved ineffective, and 
indeed, so far as America was concerned, it actually increased 
our commerce. For though our merchantmen • could no longer 
1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 25, 



282 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i.^)6-i807 

act as direct carriers between France and her colonies, nothing 
prohibited us from bringing the products of the French West 
Indies to the United States and then shipping them to France 
as American exports. By taking that course we easily evaded the 
" Rule of 1756 " and obtained double freights on our own terms. 

Later, when Spain and Holland became involved in the Euro- 
pean conflict, the neutral ships of the United States secured a 
practical monopoly of the carrying trade of the world. Sir James 
Stephen denounced this indirect commerce carried on by Ameri- 
can shipowners as a fraud committed under the protection of a 
neutral flag and as a species of ''war in disguise." England 
then (1805) declared this trade an evasion of the spirit of the 
'"Rule of 1756 "and ordered her cruisers to put a stop to it. 
This decision virtually restricted American commerce to American 
productions. 

289. British " Orders in Council " versus Napoleon's Decrees ; 
the "Leopard" and the "Chesapeake." The next year (1806) 
Great Britain issued an " Order in Council," which declared the 
coast of Europe from Brest to the Elbe in blockade. Napoleon, 
who was now emperor, retorted with his Berlin Decree (1806), 
proclaiming a " paper blockade " of the British Isles. England 
retaliated by a new "Order in Council" (1807), which forbade 
Americans or other neutrals carrying any products to France or 
her allies except on two conditions. These were that such vessels 
should undergo search by English authorities for goods " contra- 
band of war," or that they should enter an English port and pay 
duties on their cargoes. This order practically prohibited neutral 
trade with nearly the whole of Europe. 

Napoleon at once issued (1807) his Milan Decree. It pro- 
hibited all trade with Great Britain or her colonies, and ordered 
the seizure of any vessel which should submit to search by Eng- 
land or should pay any duties to the English government. The 
emperor's threat, however, did not prove very serious, for the 
battle of Trafalgar (1805) had so crippled the French navy that 
thev could not enforce his decree on the Atlantic. 



1807] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 283 

On the other hand, English men-of-war blockaded our ports, 
searched every outgoing vessel, and impressed great numbers of 
American seamen (§ 264). Congress remonstrated and put in 
force (1807) a Non-Importation Act which shut out most EngUsh 
goods from American markets ; but search and impressment con- 
tinued to go on as before. As a matter of fa(!t many sailors 
deserted English men-of-war when in our ports and openly 
entered the American service. England was determined to 
recover her own seamen, but stated that she had no intention 
of seizing ours. We declared that we had no desire to harbor 
or employ her runaway men ; but notwithstanding these avowals, 
neither government found an effective remedy for the grievance 
of which it complained. 

Finally, matters reached a climax. Vice Admiral Berkeley of 
the British service, having lost a number of his seamen by deser- 
tion, issued orders to stop the American frigate Chesapeake 
and search for the missing sailors. In taking this action, he 
declared that he recognized our right to pursue the same course 
toward any English man-of-war. Under these instructions His 
Majesty's frigate Leopard (1807) overhauled the Chesapeake 
and forcibly removed four seamen, one of whom was hanged 
at Halifax as a deserter. This outrage, said Jefferson, roused 
the United States to a pitch of excitement not equaled *' since 
the battle of Lexington." 

The President at once issued a proclamation (1807) ordering 
all British-armed vessels to leave our waters ; and Congress 
demanded reparation for the insult to our flag. Eventually the 
English government restored (181 1) the three surviving sailors 
to the decks of the Chesapeake. 

290. The Embargo Act (1807);^ opposition to the act in New 
England. It now seemed probable that both England and France 
would impose new and more stringent restrictions on American 
trade with Europe. In such a crisis war was imminent. Jefferson 
therefore resolved to try the effect of what he called "peaceable 

1 See Adams' United States, IV, ch. vii, xi, xii, xv. 



284 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I807-I809 

coercion." Before news of the Milan Decree was received (§ 289) 
he recommended Congress to pass an unlimited Embargo Act, 
whereas the previous embargo (§ 265) had been in force for only 
sixty days. Such a measure by detaining our vessels in port 
would save them and their crews from capture ; next, it would, 
it was hoped, cut off large supplies of food from both combat- 
ants and perhaps starve them into making terms with us. 

Congress passed the act^ late in 1807, and subsequently 
strengthened it by additional legislation (i 808-1809). The 
embargo entirely closed our ports to all trade with foreign coun- 
tries. American merchantmen were forbidden to sail. Coasting 
and fishing craft were permitted to go out, but only on condition 
that their owners gave bonds in double the value of vessel and 
cargo that they would not land goods or produce outside of the 
United States. 

The opposition party denounced the suppression of commerce 
as suicidal. They declared that it would be far better to risk 
vessels and crew in foreign trade than to give up that trade alto- 
gether. They spelled the hated word "embargo" backward and 
so formed it into the "O-grab-me Act." They called it the boa 
constrictor which was crushing the life out of every American 
industry ; and the youthful Bryant wrote a satirical poem on it, 
for which there was a great demand. Prices dropped ruinously ; 
the farmer could not sell his wheat, the planter found no market 
for his cotton, rice, or tobacco. 

But the heaviest immediate loss fell on New England, where 
capital was most largely invested in commercial pursuits. The 
once busy ports seemed smitten with a pestilence ; dismantled 
ships rotted in the docks, merchants became bankrupt, and 
thousands of sailors w^ere reduced to beggary. In a single year 
our exports fell off from ^49,000,000 to $9,000,000. The cus- 
tomhouses were closed and the government ceased to draw any 
revenue from commerce. Smuggling soon sprang up on an 
extensive scale on the Canada and the Florida borders. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 27. 



1809] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 285 

291. The " Force Act "; Napoleon and the embargo. To stop 
evasion of the embargo Congress passed the " Force Act " 
(1809). It prohibited the loading of any boat or vessel except 
by permit from the collector of the port, and under the eye of a 
revenue officer. Furthermore, the collector had orders to seize 
produce or goods found in any wagons or other vehicles going 
toward the seacoast or toward the boundary line, and hold them 
until the owner gave bonds that they should not be taken out of 
the country. To prevent resistance the act authorized the Presi- 
dent to employ the land and the naval forces of the United States 
and the state militia in carrying out the law. 

In New England the "Force Act" was denounced as despotic, 
and the Legislature of Massachusetts virtually nullified it by declar- 
ing it " unconstitutional and not legally binding." The Federalist 
newspapers of Boston came out in mourning : one said, " Liberty is 
dead " ; another took for its motto, " Resistance to arbitrary laws is 
duty to God." Numerous handbills were distributed, warning the 
people that the Constitution and the Union were destroyed, and 
that they must now choose between " civil war or slavery." A 
hundred towns in Massachusetts sent in resolutions to the General 
Court condemning the President and the embargo. In the other 
New England states the same spirit manifested itself. 

Abroad the embargo failed to coerce the combatants into 
respect for American rights. Our minister to Paris wrote that 
in France it was " not felt," and that in England it was " for- 
gotten." Napoleon declared that he positively liked it, and 
ironically added that he would help President Jefferson enforce 
it. He accordingly issued his Bayonne Decree (1808). By it 
he ordered the confiscation of all American vessels then found 
in France, Italy, or the Hanse Towns, or that should enter these 
ports later, on the ground that they had violated the embargo. 

292 . Results of the embargo ; its repeal (1809) ; Non-Intercourse 
Act ; presidential election. But at home the embargo had two 
advantageous results, — one economic, the other political. The 
shutting out of European goods and the prohibition of commercial 



286 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1809 

intercourse forced the capital and industry of New England to 
establish home manufactures. The looms of the farmers' wives 
were soon able to supply " two thirds of the clothing and the house 
linen of the United States outside of the cities," while in less than 
two years the number of spindles in the cotton mills increased 
from "eight thousand to eighty thousand." Shoe, hat, and other 
factories prospered ; Massachusetts sent nails, and Connecticut 
tinware and clocks, to all parts of the country. Furthermore, 
many new and important industries sprang up not only in New 
England but in other states. 

PoHtically the embargo pushed still farther that " broad con- 
struction " of the Constitution (§256) which Jefferson had 
temporarily adopted in the purchase of Louisiana (§280). Cer- 
tainly it postponed war for a number of y^ars. But whatever 
advantages were reaped from Jefferson's " peaceable coercion," 
it created dangerous irritation in the Northeast. John Quincy 
Adams at length (1809) told the President that the embargo 
could no longer be safely enforced in that quarter. He stated 
that he had good reason to believe that some leading New Eng- 
land Federalists had formed a plot to detach the northeastern 
states and to enter into an alliance with England. 

The men who were accused of being engaged in this plot indig- 
nantly denied it ; but the pressure on the government for the 
removal of the embargo became irresistible. Jefferson said a 
majority in Congress were convinced that they must choose 
between repeal or civil war. The result was that the law was 
repealed early in 1809. Congress then (1809) passed a Non- 
Intercourse Act ^ or partial embargo, which opened our ports to 
all nations except England and France. John Randolph, who 
led a small independent political party called the "Quids," said 
such a measure was simply ridiculous and like firing a pocket 
pistol at the Rock of Gibraltar. 

In the presidential election the chief candidates were James 
Madison (§ 273), who was now a Democratic-Republican, and 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 28. 



1809] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 287 

C. C. Pinckney, Federalist. Madison was elected, with George 
Clinton as Vice President; the electoral vote stood 122 to 47. 

Jefferson had lost his popularity and was anxious to retire to 
" the shades of Monticello." " Never," said he, ''did a prisoner 
released from his chains" "feel such rehef as I shall on shaking 
off the shackles of power." 

293. Summary. Jefferson's administration began, as he be- 
lieved, a '' political revolution." By his election the Republican or 
Democratic party came into power, and continued to hold it with- 
out a break for nearly forty years. LTnder Jefferson the United 
States effected the purchase of Louisiana, by which the area of the 
Republic was more than doubled, and the question of slavery exten- 
sion west of the Mississippi was opened. Soon afterward the 
Lewis and Clark expedition explored the far West and helped to 
confirm our title to the ''Oregon Country." Fulton's steamboat 
made rapid communication with the greater part of the country pos- 
sible, and so materially strengthened the bonds of union which the 
Burr conspiracy attempted to break. Abroad the insolence of the 
Barbary pirates was humbled. Later, the interference of England 
and France with our foreign trade joined to impressment disputes 
led to an embargo which produced important economic and 
political effects. When the Embargo Act was repealed it was 
succeeded by the Non-Intercourse, or partial embargo. Act. 



James Madison (Democratic-Republican), Two Terms 
(1 809-1 8 1 7) 

294. Temporary renewal of trade with Great Britain. Not 
long after Madison's inauguration (§ 292) Erskine, the EngHsh 
minister at Washington, announced himself " authorized to 
declare" that the British "Orders in Council" (§289) would 
be withdrawn on the tenth of June. Madison at once issued a 
proclamation which suspended the Non-Intercourse Act (§ 292) 
and renewed friendly relations with England. Great were the 



288 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I809-I8I0 

rejoicings among shipowners and sailors. Hundreds of vessels 
were quickly made ready for sea, and in a few weeks upwards 
of a thousand American merchantmen had left our ports laden 
with " the accumulation of nearly two years' produce." 

Three months later, dispatches came from England stating that 
Erskine had not followed his official instructions and that the 
" Orders in Council " not only remained in force but had been 
increased in stringency by the blockade, on paper, of the whole 
of France, Italy, and Holland. President Madison, angry and 
perplexed, found himself "under the mortifying necessity" of 
issuing a new proclamation (1809) reviving the Non- Intercourse 
Act (§ 292) against Great Britain. 

295. The Macon Act; Napoleon's policy. The next spring 
(18 10) Congress passed the Macon Act. It took off restrictions 
on commerce, but so far as England or France was concerned it 
forbade intercourse with the nation that continued to maintain 
measures hostile to our trade. 

Napoleon, by his secret Rambouillet Decree (1810), had 
ordered the sale of American ships and cargoes to the value of 
$ 1 0,000,000, and had thrown several hundred American sailors into 
prison. While the emperor was making ready to sweep this goodly 
sum into his '' strong box " he received a copy of the Macon Act. 
He immediately assured our government that he loved the Ameri- 
cans, and pledged himself to revoke or suspend all of his decrees 
(§ 289) against our commerce, provided Great Britain would with- 
draw her " Orders in Council " (§ 289), or that the United States 
would cause its *' rights to be respected by the EngHsh." 

President Madison was so moved by the emperor's assurance 
that he issued a proclamation declaring all trade restrictions 
against France revoked. Later, when it was found that Great 
Britain had no intention of withdrawing her ''Orders in Council," 
Congress reaffirmed non-intercourse with that country (§ 294). 
Napoleon had won his game. First, he had embroiled us anew 
with England ; secondly, by his pretended good will he had 
drawn more of our ships into the trap set to catch them when 



1809-1811] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 289 

they should arrive in French ports ; finally, he kept his cruisers 
busy burning or plundering our vessels on the ocean. 

296. Tecumseh and the "Prophet." While our relations with 
England and France were becoming strained almost to the war 
point, a decisive battle with the Indians was fought in the West. 
It was perhaps inevitable that conflicts should spring up between 
the western settlers and the aborigines. The interests of the two 
races clashed (§ 31). The whites were eager to get possession of 
the Indian hunting grounds, and many of the red men, debased 
by drink and harassed with debt, were ready to sell their lands 
for the first offer. 

The better class of Indians saw clearly that unless this process 
could be checked the tribes must soon choose between starvation 
and emigration. Tecumseh and his brother, the " Prophet," two 
Indians of the Wabash Valley, were the leaders in a great move- 
ment of reform and reorganization. Their object was to suppress 
the use of liquor among their people and to create a league of 
all the northern and southern tribes. In this proposed Indian 
republic a congress of warriors was to have absolute control over 
all lands, so that none could be sold without their consent. As a 
center for this movement, Tecumseh and the '' Prophet" founded 
a village in the territory of Indiana at the mouth of Tippecanoe 
Creek, a tributary of the Wabash. 

297. Harrison and Tecumseh ; Tippecanoe. William Henry Har- 
rison, the mihtary governor of the territory, had recently (1809) 
purchased for the United States an immense tract of land from 
remnants of tribes in the Wabash Valley. Tecumseh believed that 
this purchase had not been fairly made. He said to Governor 
Harrison : " You are continually driving the red people ; at last 
you will drive them into the Great Lake." He insisted that 
the recent land cession should be annulled ; in that case he 
pledged himself to be our faithful ally ; otherwise he threatened 
to begin hostiUties. 

Believing that war was inevitable, General Harrison, late in the 
autumn of 181 1, advanced toward Tippecanoe village with a force 



290 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I8II-I8I2 

■of about a thousand men. The Indians attempted to surprise 
him ; a battle ensued in which the attacking party was decisively 
defeated. Harrison then advanced and burned the deserted 
Indian village. At the time of the battle Tecumseh was absent 
in the South. When the War of 181 2 began he joined the English 
forces in Canada. The victory of Tippecanoe was important 
because it effectually checked Tecumseh' s project of estabhshing 
a powerful and perhaps hostile Indian confederation, and it 
opened up a vast region to white settlers. In this way Harrison's 
success proved to be an important factor in developing the West. 

298. The *' Little Belt"; the war party; the Henry letters. 
On the sea (181 1) the English sloop of war Little Belt had 
attacked, either purposely or by mistake, the American frigate 
President. The Little Belt got the worst of the battle and barely 
escaped destruction. Our grievances against England were great. 
Aside from her exercise of search (§ 289) and her impressment of 
several thousand of our sailors (§§ 264, 289), she had captured 
since 1803 more than nine hundred of our vessels. 

On the other hand, France had confiscated or destroyed Amer- 
ican property worth many millions, and cast hundreds of our 
sailors into prison ; when we asked for redress Napoleon deliber- 
ately deceived and insulted us (§ 295). 

Two young men in Congress, Henry Clay, Speaker of the 
House, and John C. Calhoun, were the leaders of a strong war 
party which was growing up in the South. They held with 
Madison that ''the original sin against neutrals" lay with Great 
Britain. The " war hawks," as the Federalists nicknamed them, 
called on the country to rise in arms against the king our fathers 
fought. We had gained our independence on land ; they declared 
that the time had now come to gain it on the sea. 

The President was reluctant to draw the sword, but at length 
yielded to pressure. In the spring of 18 12 he sent to Congress 
a number of letters which he had bought for ^50,000 from John 
Henry. Henry was an Irish adventurer who asserted that Gov- 
ernor Craig of Canada sent him (1809) as an emissary to New 



1812] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 291 

England at the time of Jefferson's embargo (§ 290). His mis- 
sion then was to find out whether the Federalists favored secession 
from the Union. 

His letters were copies, and not " honest copies," of the 
original correspondence with Governor Craig. They contained 
nothing which " compromised any one except Henry himself." 
But they moved the President to recommend laying an embargo, 
and they served to excite the war party in Congress to still 
greater exasperation against the policy of England. 

299. Madison's "war message"; war declared (18 12). Less 
than three months later, the President sent his *' war message " ^ 
to Congress. He now virtually recommended an appeal to arms. 
The three chief grievances cited were : (i) the impressment of 
American citizens into the English navy (§§ 264, 289); (2) the 
British "Orders in Council "(§ 289) and the establishment of 
"pretended blockades" by which "our commerce" had been 
" plundered in every sea " ; (3) the belief that " British traders 
and garrisons " on the Canadian frontier had encouraged the 
recent Indian outbreak (§ 297) in the West. 

When the question came up for debate in the House, the east- 
ern and middle states, with the exception of New Hampshire, 
Vermont, and Pennsylvania, voted against the war on the ground 
that we were unprepared for it, and that it would be disastrous 
to the best interests of the country. All the southern and west- 
ern states, which were mainly agricultural and had comparatively 
small commercial interests at stake, voted for it. 

Thirty-four members of the opposition joined in an address 
to their constituents in which they stated in substance that the 
United States was composed of eighteen independent sovereign- 
ties united by bonds of moral obligation only, and that if we 
entered upon the contest with England, we did so " as a divided 
people." Meanwhile Congress had imposed an embargo of ninety 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 29; Johnston's American Orations, 
I, 205. On the War of 1812, see Adams' United States, VI-VIII; Roosevelt's Naval 
War of 1812, and Gordy's Political History of the United States, II, ch. xiii-xvi. 



292 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1812 

days (§§ 265, 290) and on June 18, 181 2, it declared the " second 
war of independence " against Great Britain.^ Before the declara- 
tion reached London, English trade interests had forced Parlia- 
ment to revoke the "Orders in Council" (§289). The war, 
therefore, was to be fought on the ground of impressment of Amer- 
ican citizens. England herself admitted that this constituted a 
real grievance, but she refused to discontinue it. 

300. The American army and navy ; Clay and the invasion 
of Canada ; the war loan. Our regular army numbered less than 
seven thousand men. The officers of this small force were mainly 
"decaying veterans" who had been appointed not for their mili- 
tary ability but for political reasons. Among the younger men 
Harrison had his Tippecanoe fame (§ 297), and Winfield Scott 
and Andrew Jackson were only waiting for an opportunity to 
make a brilliant record. The country had to depend for soldiers 
mainly on the state mihtia and on volunteers. The governors of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to furnish their quota of 
mihtia to serve outside their respective states, but New England 
contributed a very large number of volunteers. 

The entire efficient navy of the United States consisted of six 
frigates and about a dozen smaller vessels ; but some of these 
were the "best of their class in the world." England, on the 
other hand, had nearly a thousand war ships. The chief officers 
of our little navy were all young men, and Hull, Decatur, Rodgers, 
Bainbridge, and Porter had shown in the wars with the Barbary 
pirates (§§ 249, 285) that they knew how to give and take hard 
knocks. But Clay, and the war party generally, placed their main 
reliance not on battles at sea, but on an invasion of Canada. 
They believed that a majority of the Canadians would flock to 
our standard, and that we should speedily dictate " peace at 
Quebec or Halifax." 

The war would demand a liberal supply of money, and Con- 
gress at once doubled the customs duties ; but when the govern- 
ment called for loans it could not obtain anything like what it 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 30. 



1812] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 293 

required ; * and many subscriptions were in state bank notes worth 
only sixty-five cents on the dollar. Later, the United vStates 
Treasury confessed itself unable to meet the interest due on the 
national debt. John Jacob Astor and Stephen Girard lent the 
government sufficient money to pay the wages of its soldiers and 
sailors ; but they charged exorbitant rates for the loan. 

301. Hull's campaign and surrender. The campaign was opened 
in the summer of 1 8 1 2 by General William Hull. He was a Revo- 
lutionary veteran whom Washington had commended as " an offi- 
cer of great merit." Hull advanced with a force of about two 
thousand men, and, crossing the Detroit River into Canada, issued 
a proclamation declaring that he had come to restore the people 
of that province " to the dignified station of freemen." The proc- 
lamation had no effect on the Canadians. 

After some skirmishes with the Indians, Hull fell back to Detroit. 
His effective force was soon reduced to about a thousand men, 
and he received no proper support from the government. Gen- 
eral Brock, aided by Tecumseh (§ 296) with a body of Indians, 
marched on Detroit and demanded its surrender. Brock had a 
somewhat larger force than Hull ; but the American general was 
behind his works and his men stood ready to defend them. Hull, 
wdthout firing a single gun or consulting his officers, gave up the 
fort. His object, he said, was to save the women and children 
of Detroit from the scalping knives of the savages. Hull had not 
only failed in his expedition against Canada, but he had lost the 
whole territory of Michigan, and Fort Dearborn (Chicago) besides. 
He was tried by court-martial, found guilty of cowardice and neg- 
lect of duty, and sentenced to be shot ; but the President pardoned 
him on account of his age and his honorable Revolutionary record. 

Troops were sent to retake Detroit, but they were surrounded 
by the British and the Indians, on the river Raisin, in southern 
Michigan, and a great many of the prisoners were massacred by 
the savages. 

1 The government lost very heavily, since for loans of over ^80,000,000 it 
received but ^34,000,000, as measured in specie. 



294 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I8I2 

In the autumn (181 2) a second attempt was made to invade 
Canada; but the expedition, which consisted chiefly of raw militia, 
was badly managed and was defeated and driven back. 

302. The '* Constitution " and the "Guerriere"; other Amer- 
ican naval victories. A few days after Hull surrendered at Detroit 
(§ 301) his nephew. Captain Isaac Hull, commander of the frigate 
Constitution, forty-four guns, fought (August 19, 18 12) the British 
frigate G tier Here, thirty- eight guns, off the coast of Nova Scotia. 
Admiral Farragut said, '' Captain Hull was as able a seaman as 
ever sailed a ship." In less than thirty minutes after the engage- 
ment began the Guerriere struck her colors. She was so terribly 
cut to pieces that Hull could not tow his prize into port, so 
he set her on fire and blew her up. The Constitution, hence- 
forth popularly known as Old Ironsides, came off without serious 
damage. Before the close of 18 12 we had gained three more 
memorable victories at sea : the Wasp had captured the Frolic ; 
the United States had taken the Macedonian ; and the Constitu- 
tion, \k\^ Java. 

Speaking of the surrender of the Guerriere, the Lo7idon Times, 
forgetful of Paul Jones' exploit (§ 224), said, "Never before in 
the history of the world did an Enghsh frigate strike to an Amer- 
ican." Before the contest ended the same journal had to con- 
fess, " Scarcely is there an American ship of war which has not 
to boast a victory over the British flag." In fact, out of eighteen 
naval engagements between single vessels we gained no less than 
fifteen. In most cases our ships were larger than those we 
fought ; furthermore, they generally had more men and often 
threw heavier broadsides ; but, after all, the real secret of our 
remarkable victories lay in the fact that we handled our ships and 
guns far better than our opponents did theirs. Success in the 
past had made the English careless ; they aimed their shot badly, 
while our sailors not only hit the mark but hit to kill. In these 
battles the enemy lost on the average about five men to our one. 

The English declared that the crews of the American vessels 
were made up largely of deserters from the royal navy, and that 



I8i2-i8i.i] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 295 

their ships had been beaten by their own countrymen fighting 
under the " stars and stripes." The log books, however, show 
that nearly all of our officers were born in America, and that not 
more than one man in twenty of our crews was a native of Great 
Britain. In the end English naval writers admitted that the 
American people, "rod in hand," had taught them their "first 
lesson" in the art of gunnery. 

This series of splendid victories moved Daniel Webster to urge 
Congress, in his first speech in that body (January 14, 181 3), to 
increase our navy. " If the war must continue," said he, " go to 
the ocean . . . ; there the united wishes and exertions of the 
nation will go with you." 

303. The "Essex" in the Pacific; American privateers; the 
British blockade ; the presidential election ; the *' Chesapeake" and 
the " Shannon." While we were gaining this series of successes 
on the Atlantic, Captain Porter of the Essex was /lestroying 
British whalers by wholesale in the Pacific. American privateers 
beset the coast of England to such an extent that English mer- 
chantmen did not dare leave port except under the protection of 
a man-of-war. Within two years we had captured more than 
eight hundred vessels, and before the close of the war the total 
number of our prizes reached twenty-five hundred. 

On the other hand, the British not only captured hundreds of 
our merchantmen, but they kept up a strict blockade along the 
coast of the United States. If one of our war ships left port, it 
ran the "risk of being taken by a superior force, and " the Amer- 
ican flag ceased for a time to wave from any national vessel on 
the ocean." 

Meanwhile the presidential election had occurred (18 12), and 
notwithstanding the efforts of the peace party, Madison received 
128 electoral votes to 89 cast for De Witt Clinton, his opponent; 
Elbridge Gerry was elected Vice President. 

The first decided American defeat at sea occurred in the sum- 
mer of 18 13. Captain Broke of the Shannon^ cruising off Boston, 
challenged Captain Lawrence of the Chesapeake to fight him:; 



296 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I813 

Lawrence's crew was larger than Broke 's, but it consisted mainly 
of raw men, and some of these were mutinous. Broke declared 
that he had long been drilling his crew into a state of " perfect 
discipline " with reference to such a contest. In the course of 
the action a large number of the officers of the Chesapeake were 
struck down, and Lawrence himself fell mortally wounded. His 
dying order was, " Don't give up the ship ! " The command 
came too late, for the enemy, leaping on board the Chesapeake, 
captured the vessel (June i, 18 13) and ran up the English colors 
in triumph. This engagement was the last important battle of 
the war between single ships. 

304. Perry's victory on Lake Erie. While these events were 
taking place on the Atlantic, Oliver Hazard Perry, a young man 
of twenty-seven, was busy preparing for the defense of Lake 
Erie, then held by the enemy's ships. Perry captured a British 
brig, bought three small American schooners, and then, by almost 
incredible labor, completed the construction of five more vessels 
from green timber which he cut on the western shore of the lake. 

With this fleet of nine vessels, of which two, as Perry said, 
" were growing in the woods last spring," the young commander 
attacked the British squadron. Perry had certain advantages in 
the engagement. He had three more ships than the enemy ; he 
probably had more men fit for duty ; and his guns, though fewer 
in number than those of the English, could throw far heavier 
broadsides. The battle (September 10, 181 3) was fought with 
indomitable courage on both sides. 

In memory of the lamented commander of the Chesapeake Perry 
had named his vessel the Lawrence and had hoisted a flag bearing 
Lawrence's last words — "Don't give up the ship!" (§303). 
The British made this vessel the target of their fire ; Perry fought 
until nearly every one of his men had fallen. He saw that it would 
be madness to remain longer in his shattered ship. The enemy 
had literally " hammered him out of it." Leaping into a rowboat 
with his brother, a boy of twelve, he pulled with splintered oars 
amid a storm of flying shot for the Niagara. Having reached 





WAR OF 1812 



1813-1814] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 297 

her, he again hoisted the famous flag he had brought with him from 
the Lawrence and bore down on the enemy's fleet. The fight 
was renewed more furiously than ever, with the result that at 
length the British commander was forced to strike his colors. 
Perry then taking a pencil wrote on the back of an old letter this 
laconic dispatch to General Harrison, commander of the Army of 
the West : " We have met the enemy and they are ours." 

It was the first entire squadron that Great Britain had ever sur- 
rendered, and she had surrendered this to Americans. The vic- 
tory gave us the absolute control of Lake Erie. Perry transported 
Harrison's army, thirty-five hundred strong, across to Canada. 
The British, who had only about seven hundred men, were com- 
pelled to abandon Detroit and retreat up the Thames. Tecumseh 
(§ 297) with about a thousand Indians joined them on that river. 
Harrison completely routed the enemy and Tecumseh was killed. 
We recovered Detroit (§ 301), and the British never again got a 
foothold on the territory of Michigan. In consequence of the 
death of Tecumseh most of the Indian tribes in the Northwest 
now made haste to declare their submission to the United States. 

305. Macdonough's victory (18 14). The British, having cap- 
tured Oswego, had dispatched a force of about twelve thousand 
men from Canada down the western shore of Lake Champlain. 
This movement was supported by a British fleet on the lake. To 
oppose this advance we had a small force at Plattsburg, and a 
few war vessels stationed on the lake. The American squadron 
was commanded by Captain Macdonough, a young man about 
Perry's age (§ 304). In this instance the British had more ships, 
more men, and more guns. The weight of metal which each side 
could throw was equal almost to a pound, but the enemy was far 
superior in the important matter of long-range guns. 

Macdonough got his ships into an advantageous position for 
the fight, and then handled them so admirably that in less than 
three hours (September 11, 18 14) he had won the day. The 
British army retreated to Canada and made no further attempts 
to penetrate the state of New York. 



298 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1813-1814 

306. The campaign in Canada ; the " Bladensburg races " ; cap- 
ture of Washington; the '» Star- Spangled Banner." Meanwhile 
there had been a movement on Montreal, and fighting had 
occurred (November 11, 18 13) at Chrysler's Farm; there had 
also been sharp engagements at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane 
(July 5 and 25, 18 14). In the first instance we came off second 
best; in the last two battles General Brown and Winfield Scott 
drove the enemy off the field ; but our forces were too small to 
maintain a foothold on Canadian soil. 

Late in the summer of 18 14 Admiral Cockburn and General 
Ross landed about five thousand men, mostly sailors and 
marines, on the banks of the Patuxent and marched on Wash- 
ington. General Winder with a force of six thousand men met 
the enemy at Bladensburg within sight of the national capital. 
Five hundred of Winder's army were sailors ; most of the rest 
were raw militia. The sailors made a brave stand, but the militia 
ran, and Madison, who was with the troops, was swept along with 
them, in what the newspapers called the " Bladensburg races." 

Later, the President fled to the Virginia woods for safety. 
The enemy entered Washington in triumph (August 24, 18 14); 
their first act was to burn the capitol. They next entered the 
executive mansion, and, according to their own account, drank 
the king's health in the President's wine, and then set fire to the 
house. They then proceeded to destroy the Treasury, and most 
of the other government buildings. The English declared that 
they perpetrated this act of vandalism in retahation for our hav- 
ing burned the Parliament House at York (now Toronto). 

The British fleet next (September 12, 18 14) moved on Fort 
McHenry, the chief defense of Baltimore. The fort held out 
valiantly against the furious bombardment; if it fell, the chief 
city of Maryland must fall with it. Among those who anxiously 
watched the attack was Francis S. Key, a young Baltimorean, 
detained as a temporary prisoner by the British. When the sun 
rose on the second morning he saw with delight that the fort held 
out and that " our flag was still there." The enemy had ceased 



(3^. ftz:t ^^-^ ,^.^ yc^TT^^jL-TiT: ^«^-r^^ -^ 



1813-1814] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 299 

firing and were preparing to withdraw. Taking an old letter from 
his pocket, Key hastily wrote on the back of it the first draught of 
the national song of the '' Star- Spangled Banner " ; the whole 
country was soon ringing with its patriotic strains. 

307. Fort Mims ; Jackson at Tohopeka and Pensacola. While 
the war was going on at the East, important events were happen- 
ing in the Southwest. The powerful Indian tribe of the Creeks 
in the Alabama country had risen against the settlers in that sec- 
tion. In the summer of 18 13 they attacked Fort Mims, near 
Mobile, and massacred more than five hundred men, women, and 
children who had gathered there for safety. General Andrew 
Jackson of Tennessee, rising from a sick bed, marched against 
the Indians and completely routed them (March 14, 1814) at 
Tohopeka or Horseshoe Bend, on a branch of the Alabama River. 

The Spanish authorities had perfidiously permitted the English 
forces to land at Pensacola, Florida, and make it a base of opera- 
tions for attacking Louisiana. Jackson repulsed a movement of 
the enemy against Mobile ; then, without waiting for orders from 
Washington, he pushed forward to Pensacola, took the place by 
storm (November 7, 18 14), and drove out the British. This 
success left '' Old Hickory," as his men called him, free to go to 
the defense of New Orleans, which was the real point at which the 
enemy was aiming. 

308. New England's opposition to the war. While Jackson was 
throwing up intrenchments at New Orleans a movement was in 
progress in New England which many believed threatened a dis- 
solution of the Union. The New England states had suffered 
very heavily by the war, and the commercial distress of that 
section could hardly be overestimated. 

A strong party (§ 299) there, who were nicknamed " Blue Light 
Federalists," ^ opposed the further prosecution of the contest. 



1 It was said that certain Federalists in Connecticut had given information to 
the British fleet by burning blue lights at the entrance to the harbor of New London. 
All New England Federalists who opposed the war were now called " Blue Light 
Federalists." 



300 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1813-1814 

They denied that we had made any real progress. Our inva- 
sion of Canada (§§ 301, 306), said they, has ended in failure; 
our national capital has been captured and burned, and our coast 
is strictly blockaded ; the enemy has secured possession of the 
seaboard of the district of Maine, and threatens to advance 
farther south. 

They admitted that we had gained remarkable victories on the 
ocean ; but they called attention to the fact that the fall of 
Napoleon now left England free to employ an overwhelming 
naval force against us, and that a powerful British fleet carrying a 
thousand guns was at that very time moving on New Orleans. 

Again, the opposition declared that the war had already cost 
thirty thousand lives and more than $100,000,000; that the 
national treasury was empty ; and that the financial condition of 
the country seemed to forebode a general crash. Many banks 
had suspended payment, and it was feared that sooner or later 
all must close their doors. 

Now that the first enthusiasm had spent itself, it had become 
difficult to secure recruits. Outside of New York, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, and perhaps Ohio, very few states gave to the war the 
earnest support which it demanded. Volunteering had prac- 
tically ceased, and the Secretary of War proposed a draft, and 
suggested that minors over eighteen should be enhsted "without 
the consent of their parents." The legislatures of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut thereupon passed an act imposing a fine and 
imprisonment on all United States officers who should induce 
minors to enlist. In the navy the lack of men was so serious 
that the Secretary of that department urged the government to 
adopt the British expedient of impressment of seamen. 

309. Call for the Hartford Convention ; the " Richmond En- 
quirer " on secession. The Senate of Massachusetts had already 
(June 15, 18 13) resolved that the war was "waged without jus- 
tifiable cause," and had solemnly remonstrated against its con- 
tinuance. The following year the Legislature issued a call for a 
convention at Hartford, and invited the other New England states 



1813-1814] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 301 

to send delegates " to confer upon the subject of their public 
grievances." 

But in issuing this call the legislature explicitly limited the 
action of the proposed convention to matters " not repugnant to 
their obligation as members of the Union." The legislatures of 
Connecticut and Rhode Island — the only remaining states which 
chose delegates — imposed a similar restriction. Notwithstand- 
ing the above proviso, the report got abroad that the real object 
of the convention was nothing less than secession. The President 
was greatly alarmed and " looked heartbroken." 

The Richmond Enquirer condemned the meeting in advance. 
It declared that " No state, or set of states, has a right to with- 
draw itself from the Union of its own account." It added : " The 
majority of the states which formed the Union must consent to 
the withdrawal of any branch of it. Until that consent has been 
obtained, any attempt to dissolve the Union ... is treason'' 

310. The Hartford Convention and its work. The Federalists 
hailed the proposed convention as the '' Star in the East." It 
met at Hartford (December 15, 18 14), and by unanimous vote 
chose George Cabot of Boston chairman. It continued in secret 
session for three weeks. The report^ of the convention recom- 
mended seven amendments to the Constitution. One of these 
proposed amendments, which was styled '' indispensable," de- 
manded that the power of Congress to admit new states, as 
in the recent case of Louisiana (§ 282), should be restricted; 
the next most important of the proposed amendments demanded 
the limitation of the authority of the government to declare 
" offensive war." 

The convention furthermore recommended the legislatures of 
the three states represented to protect their citizens against 
forcible drafts or impressments (§ 308) not authorized by the 
Constitution. It also advised these states to ask permission of 
the national government to use a part of the federal taxes for 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 32 ; Adams' United States, VIII, 
ch. xi. 



302 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1814-1815 

defending their territory against British attack. In case the 
government refused to grant such permission or neglected to take 
measures for the protection of New England, and insisted on 
prosecuting the war, the convention recommended that another 
convention should be called to act as " a crisis so momentous 
may require." 

Several delegates had been strongly urged to advocate seces- 
sion, but declined to do so. They declared, however, that " if 
the Union be destined to dissolution by reason of the multiplied 
abuses of bad administration, it should, if possible, be the work 
of peaceable times and deliberate consent." 

The ''sphinx-like mystery" of the Hartford Convention gave 
the finishing stroke to the Federalist party (§ 275).' Its enemies 
accused its delegates of having committed ''moral treason." The 
fact that it generally represented only the more extreme Feder- 
aHsts had no weight with those who violently denounced all who 
belonged to that party. 

311. The battle of New Orleans (1815). Three days after the 
Hartford Convention closed its session, General Jackson won the 
ever-memorable battle of New Orleans. The British army of ten 
thousand men was largely composed of veterans who had fought 
under Wellington. They were commanded by Sir Edward Paken- 
ham, brother-in-law of the " Iron Duke " and one of his bravest 
officers. Their object was to take New Orleans and thereby get 
control of Louisiana and the mouth of the Mississippi. Jackson 
had only about half as many men as Pakenham, and less than 
one fifth of these were " regulars." The remainder was made 
up of Louisiana militia, Lafitte's pirates, free negroes, and volun- 
teers from Tennessee and Kentucky. The latter were all " dead 
shots " with the rifle. 

Jackson's main line of defense consisted of a canal or broad 
ditch, backed by a rampart of muddy earth which extended east- 
ward from the Mississippi to an impassable cypress swamp. On 
this rampart he had mounted thirteen cannon. Fighting began 
on the last of December (18 14), but the great attack and final 



1815] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 303 

assault by the British came at dayhght on Sunday morning, 
January 8, 181 5. The artillerymen and the sharpshooters mowed 
down the enemy as they advanced against our works, while Jack- 
son ran along the line crying to his men : " Give it to them, my / 
boys ! Let 's finish the business to-day ! " lJ 

They did "finish" it. The assaulting party was driven back 
with terrible loss. They died as brave men die, falling with their 
faces toward our guns. The British rallied again and again, but 
it was useless ; they could not scale our intrenchments, and at 
length, after three hours of desperate fighting, they turned and 
fled in confusion. In that short time the enemy had lost more 
than twenty-five hundred men, including Pakenham, their leader ; 
half of the dead were shot between the eyes. Jackson reported 
our loss at "only seven killed and six wounded." It is probable 
that this decisive victory would in itself have put an end to the 
war, and the moral effect of it would certainly have saved the 
Union had it stood in any real danger of disruption. 

312. The Treaty of Ghent. After the first overthrow of Napoleon, 
England fell back exhausted by the tremendous struggle in which 
she had been engaged on the continent. Her people, crushed 
by debt and taxes, were eager to make peace with the United 
States, and thereby reopen their American trade. Our commis- 
sioners, Gallatin, Bayard, and J. Q. Adams, met the English 
commissioners at Ghent in the summer of 1813 ; the negotiations 
dragged on for a year and a half. A short time before Jackson 
fought the battle of New Orleans, the treaty ^ was signed at Ghent 
(December 24, 1814) ; but in those days of slow-sailing ships 
the news did not reach us in season to prevent the last great 
conflict of the war. 

We had entered upon the contest of 181 2 with the cry of 
" Free Trade and Sailors' Rights ! " Our chief object was to 
compel England to renounce the impressment of American sea- 
men (§ 264). The Treaty of Ghent, however, did not mention 
impressment at all nor did it protect the rights of neutrals, 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 31. 



304 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1815 

Hence it wholly failed to secure either of the objects for which 
we took up arms. 

But the progress of events gained both these points without a 
treaty. When England exiled Napoleon to St. Helena all ques- 
tions about neutral ships, free goods, and impressment were 
dropped and, so far as the United States was concerned, were 
never again revived in a threatening form. Many years later 
(1856), England, with the other chief commercial nations of 
Europe, adopted the Declaration of Paris, which abolished priva- 
teering, and made the neutral flag cover all goods not contraband 
of war. The United States decHned to accede to the Declara- 
tion, on the ground that it would involve a large increase of the 
American navy. This decision on our part proved disastrous to 
us during the Civil War. 

With regard to territory the treaty stipulated that England 
should restore the seizures she had made, — these were parts of 
Maine and the trading post at Astoria, Oregon ; provision was also 
made for the settlement of the dispute respecting the boundary 
line between the United States and Canada. The next year Great 
Britain agreed to open her West India possessions, in large measure, 
to American commerce. 

However unsatisfactory the treaty was on the leading points in 
discussion, the fact that it brought peace caused it to be hailed 
with delight. Jefferson declared that if the war had lasted a 
twelvemonth longer it would have upset our government. How- 
ever that may be, it is certain that both Federahsts and Repub- 
licans were wild with joy. Party hatred was forgotten, and old 
political enemies rushed into each other's arms and " kissed each 
other like women." 

313. Political results of the War of 18 12. The War of 18 12, 
though disappointing in some of its results (§ 312), was, never- 
theless, our " second war of independence." The splendid vic- 
tories which we gained on the sea and on the lakes won for us the 
respect of foreign nations, and henceforth Great Britain and all 
other European powers silently conceded our rights on the ocean. 



1815-1816] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 305 

Next, the war emancipated us from the belief that we stood in 
need of European alUances. Nothing more was heard of a French 
or of an English party (§ 261) ; America felt able to go forward 
in her own chosen path without leaning on any foreign power or 
asking for any foreign approval. Finally, the war roused the con- 
sciousness of nationality and strengthened the bond of Union 
which it had at one time threatened to break (§§ 308-310). 
We heard no more expressions of New England discontent, and 
no more hints of possible secession in that quarter. Jackson's 
notable victory at New Orleans came to complement and round 
out the naval successes of Hull, Decatur, Porter, Perry, and Mac- 
donough. It sent a thrill of pride through the whole nation, 
made North and South feel that they were one people, and 
opened the way by which the western general advanced to the 

presidency. 

314. Economic results of the war; second United States Bank; 
tariff ; emigration ; " internal improvements " ; new states ; presi- 
dential election. The charter of the Bank of the United States 
(§255) expired (1811) just before the outbreak of hostilities 
with England. An attempt to renew it failed by a single vote. 
At the close of the war the suspension of specie payment by state 
banks encouraged the friends of a national bank to propose the 
reestabUshment of such an institution. They wanted some kind 
of paper money which would be taken at the same value on 
both sides of a turnpike tollgate. They were successful, and 
the second Bank of the United States, one of "the first results of 
the war, was chartered (1816) for twenty years.^ Its capital was 
fixed at $35,000,000, of which one fifth was to be subscribed by 
the federal government. Like its predecessor, it had its head- 
quarters in Philadelphia, with numerous branches throughout the 

country. 

A second result of the war, considered in connection with the 
preceding embargo (§ 292), was the encouragement it gave to 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 33 I Dewey's Financial History of the 
United States, 145. 



3o6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I814-I8I6 

manufacturing, especially in New England and New York. In 
181 4 Francis C. Lowell, with others, introduced the power loom 
from England, and opened at Waltham, Massachusetts, the first 
completely equipped cotton mill in the world. It was followed 
by the establishment of the colossal factory systems of Lowell, 
Fall River, and Lawrence. All of these factories were operated 
by water power, for the use of steam for manufacturing purposes 
had hardly begini. At the close of hostilities fleets of English 
merchantmen laden with English goods began to arrive at our 
ports. The cotton mills of New England, claiming to repre- 
sent a capital of $40,000,000, demanded tariff legislation which 
should check this deluge of cotton cloths pouring in from abroad. 
Woolens were likewise in danger from the same source. They 
were said to employ a capital of about $12,000,000. 

A third result of the war was that Henry Clay, in the spirit of 
Hamilton (§ 258), came forward as the champion of the protection 
of home industry against foreign competition. He briefly urged 
the adoption of a tariff which should lay a duty on the class of 
imported goods which our manufacturers could produce, " not so 
much," he said, '* for the sake of the manufacturers themselves 
as for the general interest." ^ He, however, said nothing about 
establishing protection as a permanent policy of the government. 
His arguments were warmly supported by Calhoun and other 
southern members interested in cotton raising for the domestic 
market. 

Daniel Webster represented New England commercial interests. 
He declared himself friendly to such manufactures as we then 
possessed, but he strongly opposed any action on the part of 
the government which should tend to stimulate their artificial 
increase.^ Eventually a tariff with strong protective features, 
especially in favor of cottons and woolens, was established (1816) ; 
it imposed duties of from twenty to thirty-five per cent.^ This 

1 See Henry Clay's Speeches, I, 285. 

2 See Lodge's Life of Webster, 158. 

3 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 161. 



1816-1817] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 307 

tariff was the first which put forward protection as a funda- 
mental principle and treated the question of revenue as a 
subordinate one. 

Furthermore, both Clay and Calhoun besought Congress to 
undertake the construction of roads and canals in the South and 
West, with the view of strengthening the material bonds of the 
Union. 

A fourth result of the war was that a great impulse was given 
to emigration, especially toward the South and West, which did 
not suffer from the depression felt in the New England states. 
In the six years following the treaty of peace (1816-1821) the 
territorial population increased so rapidly that a new state was 
admitted each year. 

A fifth important economic result of t]ie war was that it showed 
the military as well as the political weakness of a vast domain 
destitute of lines of connecting roads and canals. This fact moved 
a powerful party in Congress to advocate a comprehensive system 
of " internal improvements " (§ 285) which would facilitate means 
of communication and transportation between the states. Hence 
the general political result of the war was to strengthen the 
"broad-construction" theory of the Constitution (§ 256). 

During Madison's first administration the state of Louisiana 
(§282) entered the Union (1812), and near the close of his 
second administration (18 16) Indiana was admitted, making the 
whole number of states nineteen. 

The presidential election (18 16) was a complete triumph for 
the Republicans. James Monroe, who was Secretary of State 
under Madison and, in the language of that day, *'heir apparent" 
to the presidency, was chosen to succeed Madison, with Daniel 
D. Tompkins as Vice President. Monroe's opponent was Rufus 
King, Federalist. The electoral vote stood 183 to 34. 
■^15. Summary. The principal event of Madison's two admin- 
istrations was the War of 18 12, — commonly known as "the 
second war of independence." The contest made our power 
respected on the ocean; it ended by strengthening the Union 



308 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1817 

and rendering it self-reliant. It encouraged the " broad-construc- 
tion" policy which called the second Bank of the United States into 
existence, established a tariff with protective features, and gave 
a new impulse to measures favoring the building of roads, canals, 
and other "internal improvements" by the national government. 



James Monroe (Democratic-Republican), Two Terms 
(1817-1825) 

316. The "Era of Good Feeling." Congress had made large 
appropriations for strengthening the coast defenses of the United 
States. The President (§ 314) thought it his first duty to visit 
and personally inspect all the military posts on the frontier. 
Starting from Washington he took the steamboat to Baltimore, 
and thence passed along the seaboard of the middle and eastern 
states as far as Portland. Then turning westward he journeyed 
to Detroit, and after a tour of more than three months (18 17) 
returned through Ohio to occupy the unfinished "White House" 
at the national capital. In the West much of the country through 
which he traveled was still covered by the primeval forest, broken 
here and there by Indian villages or scattered white settlements. 
Later (1819), Monroe made a similar journey through the South. 

No President since Washington had made such a journey, and 
Monroe was everywhere welcomed with enthusiasm. Dressed in 
the handsome blue and buff uniform of an officer of the Revolu- 
tion, the President recalled the stirring days of '76, when Amer- 
ican patriots fought for the liberty they now enjoyed. The bitter 
sectional feelings roused by the late war had subsided, and no 
sharp pohtical issues had since arisen. Rivals for office might 
indeed look upon each other with any but friendly eyes, but 
the great mass of Federahsts and Republicans seemed to forget 
their old prejudices and animosities. They declared that all 
things now made for peace, and that the " Era of Good Feeling " 
had begun. 



1817-1818] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 309 

317. The first Seminole War (18 17-1818). Many Indians of the 
Creek nation (§ 307) had emigrated to Florida, where they had 
united with native tribes of that section. The Creeks called these 
emigrants Seminoles, or "Wanderers." After General Jackson 
had subdued the Creeks and forced them to give up a large 
tract of their country, many of the defeated and angry savages 
crossed the border and joined the Seminoles. Led by their chief, 
" Billy Bowlegs," they declared implacable hatred to the United 
States. They made a treaty with Colonel Nicholls, commander 
of a British force, who encouraged them in their determination to 
compel the federal government to restore their lands in Georgia 
and Alabama. 

Runaway slaves from Georgia uniting with bands of Seminoles 
seized an empty stronghold which Nicholls had built, and hence- 
forth it was known as the " Negro Fort." The occupants of the 
fort made raids across the border and plundered the Georgia set- 
tlers, driving off cattle and enticing slaves to join them. General 
Gaines dispatched an expedition against the negro stronghold, 
and a well-directed, red-hot ball passing through the powder 
magazine blew the fort and its defenders to fragments (18 16). 

This effectually destroyed the negro settlement, but as the 
Seminoles remained unsubdued, General Jackson was ordered to 
move against them. Jackson made short work with the Indians 
he encountered. Believing that the Spanish garrison at St. Mark's 
secretly encouraged the hostile Seminoles, he compelled the com- 
mander to surrender that post (18 18). 

A little later, he seized Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two British 
subjects who were engaged in trade with the Indians, and accused 
them of stirring up the savages to make war against the United 
States. The men were convicted by court-martial and hanged. 
Jackson then marched on the Spanish post of Pensacola and 
seized it (18 18) on the ground that the governor encouraged the 
Indians to make raids into xMabama. 

318. Jackson and Florida ; purchase of Florida. Jackson thus 
ended the first Seminole War. In doing this he practically 



310 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [18I8-I819 

conquered Florida, for whose purchase we were then negotiating 
with Spain. The government had strictly prohibited his seizing 
any Spanish post unless expressly ordered to do so. Spain pro- 
tested against this armed invasion of her territory ; Jackson justi- 
fied his action by appeaHng to the necessity .of self-defense. 

He declared that if the Spanish authorities could not or would 
not restrain the Seminoles from committing outrages on American 
citizens, he had the military right to seize such fortified points as 
would effectually secure our frontier. The administration, how- 
ever, took a different view of the matter. The President promptly 
disavowed Jackson's capture of St. Mark's and Pensacola, and 
restored the posts to the Spanish authorities (18 18). 

Spain now thought it expedient to dispose of a province which, 
on account of its situation, was likely to breed more wars with the 
United States. John Quincy Adams negotiated a treaty ^ of pur- 
chase (18 1 9) which was ratified in 182 1. By its terms Spain ceded 
to us the whole territory of East and West Florida for the sum of 
^5,000,000, and at the same time renounced her claim to any 
part of the Pacific coast north of the forty-second parallel. This 
act helped to confirm our title to the "Oregon Country " (§ 258). 
On the other hand, we gave up whatever territorial right we 
had obtained to Texas through our purchase of the province of 
Louisiana (§ 280). 

319. Business crash and panic ; separation of Church and State ; 
the suffrage question; the steamship "Savannah." Meanwhile 
the country was suffering from " hard times " and the outlook 
was most discouraging. The introduction of the steamboat into 
western waters (§ 286) had greatly stimulated emigration, and 
this, in turn, had encouraged widespread and reckless land specu- 
lation. To accommodate borrowers banks sprang up by scores, 
so that before the close of 1818 nearly four hundred such institu- 
tions were doing business in twenty- three states and territories. 
Most of these institutions deserved the name of " wild-cat banks." 
They had no adequate capital. Many of them were guilty of gross 
1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 34. 



1818-1819] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 311 

fraud, and recklessly issued '' five times as much paper as they 
could ever redeem." The Bank of the United States (§314) itself 
was, at that period, not free from charges of " corruption and 
breach of trust"; but later it was reorganized on a sound basis. 
The Bank resolved to force these worthless state banks to redeem 
the notes with which they had flooded the country. This action 
hastened the inevitable crash (18 19). It was the first financial 



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The United States after the Purchase of Florida in 1819 

From 1818 to 1846 the "Oregon Country" was held jointly with Great Britain. 
Spain gave up all claim to Oregon in 1819; all the territory east of the upper 
Mississippi had been organized (1805, 1818) as " Michigan Territory" 

panic in our history.^ Business came to a standstill, laborers were 
thrown out of employment, and the jails were crowded with pen- 
niless debtors. Benton called it a period of " gloom and agony," 
and John Quincy Adams said that '' the distress was universal." 

In taking the decided course it did, the United States Bank 
not only excited the bitter hostility of the debtor class, but it 
moved Maryland and Ohio to endeavor to destroy its branches 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 166. 



312 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I8I8-I819 

in these states by taxing them out of existence. But the United 
States Supreme Court decided {Mc Culloch vs. Marylandy that 
the action was unconstitutional. Nevertheless Ohio reaffirmed 
the Virginia and Kentucky nuUification resolutions (§ 273) and 
openly defied the court.^ 

While these dismal events occupied the public mind a great 
political movement was in progress in New England, which 
resulted in the final separation of Church and State (§ 179). 
This change began in the adoption of a new constitution by Con- 
necticut (18 1 8). It extended to New Hampshire (18 19), then to 
Maine (182 1), and finally (1833) to Massachusetts. It granted 
the right of suffrage to all taxpayers and released them from the 
compulsory support of any form of religious worship. 

In the East the struggle for manhood suffrage was still opposed 
by such distinguished leaders of thought as Chancellor Kent and 
Daniel Webster. Nevertheless the conviction that the right to 
vote and representation should not rest on the possession of prop- 
erty was steadily gaining ground and was destined to succeed. 

But another and very different revolution was foreshadowed. 
In the spring of 1819 the Savannah, an American-built sailing 
vessel, provided with paddle wheels which could be moved by 
steam, crossed from New York to Liverpool. She was the first 
rude attenipt at an ocean steamer. She made the passage in 
twenty-six days. There were packet ships then that could easily 
beat that record, but the Savannah appears to have suggested the 
first permanent line of steamships. These vessels were launched 
in England in 1840, and were the forerunners of our modern 
" greyhounds of the sea." 

320. The question of slavery extension ; alternate admission of 
free and slave states. For many years there had been no serious 
discussion of slavery in Congress ; apparently that question had 
been put to final rest (§ 257). Now it suddenly sprang to life in 
a more dangerous form than ever. 

1 See Abstract of Constitutional Decisions by the Court, facing page 266. 

2 See Gordy's Political History of the United States, II, 478. 



1818-1819] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 313 

We have seen (§ 176) that Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson 
believed and hoped that slavery would die a natural death. But 
the occurrence of two events rendered their labors in the cause 
of emancipation useless. These were Whitney's invention of the 
cotton gin (1793) (§ 259) and the purchase of the territory of 
Louisiana (1803) (§ 280). The first made slave labor enormously 
profitable at the South ; the second secured its extension west of 
the Mississippi River. Thus at the very time when the northern 
states were passing acts of gradual or immediate emancipation 
negro bondage was strengthened at the South, and was gaining the 
support of much northern manufacturing and commercial capital. 

Congress (1808) had prohibited the foreign slave trade (§ 257), 
but it still flourished; and Judge Story declared (18 19) that 
American citizens were " steeped up to their very mouths in this 
stream of iniquity." Unexpectedly the question of the mainte- 
nance of slavery now threatened to become the chief economic, 
political, and moral factor in the history of the United States. 

From this period the RepubHc became, more and more, '' a 
house divided against itself." Every year made it more and more 
difficult for the federal government to legislate satisfactorily for 
the two sections with their antagonistic tendencies and systems 
of labor. In order to secure an even division of poHtical power, 
Congress had adopted the policy of admitting new states by alter- 
nation, so that a free state should balance a slave, or a slave a 
free (§ 267). Thus Vermont was followed by Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee by Ohio, Louisiana by Indiana, Mississippi by lUinois. 
After the admission of Illinois (18 18) there were eleven free to ten 
slave states in the Union. The expected admission of Alabama, 
which in fact soon occurred, would restore the political equipoise 
and make the Union half slave and half free. 

321. Missouri applies for admission as a slave state; Tall- 
madge's amendment. At this juncture the Legislature of Missouri 
territory petitioned Congress (18 18) for permission to form a state 
government.^ At St. Louis and elsewhere about ten thousand 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 34-41. 



314 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1819 

negroes were held in bondage under territorial laws (§ 280), and no 
one doubted that the people of Missouri intended to make it a slave 
state. The petition was referred to a committee which brought in 
a favorable bill. This action was a surprise to the North; for since 
the admission of the state of Louisiana (181 2) the people opposed 
to slavery (§281) had taken it for granted that no further attempts 
would be made to extend it west of the Mississippi. Most of them 
seem to have had no interest whatever in the welfare of the 
negro. What they feared was that the extension of slavery would 
greatly increase the political power of the South in Congress. 

When the Missouri bill came up in the House, Tallmadge 
of New York moved an amendment (February 13, 18 19) pro- 
hibiting " the further introduction of slavery " into Missouri, and 
requiring that " all children born within the said state, after the 
admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of 
twenty-five years." ^ 

322. Debate on Tallmadge's amendment. This proposition 
roused a fierce and prolonged debate in which southern threats 
of secession were met by cool defiance. It was the first really 
formidable " battle in Congress over the slavery question." While 
the question was before the House a bill was introduced to pro- 
vide a territorial government for the Arkansas country, where, as 
in the Missouri country, slavery already existed. Following the 
example of Tallmadge, Taylor of New York moved that slavery 
should be prohibited in the new territory. After a sharp contest 
his motion was lost and Arkansas was organized (March 2, 1819) 
without the proposed restriction. 

This act seemed to foreshadow the extension of negro bond- 
age, and as it promised to extend the power of the slaveholders it 
greatly excited the North. But the discussion of the Missouri 
question far outranked that of the territory of Arkansas, and it 
roused passions which shook the foundations of the Republic. 
Jefferson said that the angry debate startled him " like a fire bell 
in the night," and seemed " the knell of the Union." 

iSee Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 35. 



1819J THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 315 

Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, led the opponents of 
Tallmadge's motion. He argued that opening up new territory 
to slavery would not thereby increase the number of the servile 
class, but that it would " dilute the evil." He said that it would 
be inhuman to coop up the slaves on the exhausted soil of plan- 
tations east of the Mississippi, and he implored Congress to throw 
open Missouri and let the poor negroes " share the fat plenty of 
the new West." 

He and his followers denied that Congress had the constitu- 
tional power to impose Tallmadge's restriction (Appendix, page 
xiv, § 3). They furthermore declared that the purchase treaty 
of 1803 (§ 280) guaranteed to the white inhabitants of the entire 
Louisiana country the right to hold slaves. Finally, they con- 
tended that Congress could not prevent emigrants from the 
southern states going to Missouri and taking with them their 
negroes, that in law were as truly their property as were their 
horses and cattle. Senator Benton of Missouri first replied to this 
argument many years later. He said. Granting that slaveholders 
may carry their negroes into United States territory, yet they can- 
not carry with them the southern state law, which alone makes 
such negroes their property.-^ The general contention set up by 
northern members was that Congress, under the Confederation, 
had shut slavery out of the entire Northwest Territory by the 
Ordinance of 1787 (§ 237), and had done it by means of south- 
ern votes. If that celebrated act was constitutional, — and no one 
denied it, — so, too, they argued, was the measure now proposed, 
since it simply applied to the region beyond the Mississippi, a rule 
which had been successfully applied east of that river. 

Slavery, said they, is not national, but local and accidental ; it is 
contrary to the real spirit of American institutions. To extend it 
would be to deliberately propagate a system which leading south- 
ern men have always admitted to be a moral and political evil. 

Thus supported, Tallmadge's amendment passed the House by 
a vote of 97 to 56, but it was rejected by the Senate. The House 

1 See Benton's Thirty Years' View, II, 745. 



3l6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1819 



stood firm, and Cobb of Georgia declared that the northern 
members "were kindling a fire " which nothing but blood could 
extinguish. Later, Senator Barbour of Virginia proposed calling 
a convention to dissolve the Union. 

323. The people discuss the Missouri question ; action of Con- 
gress on Maine and Missouri. After the adjournment of Congress 
in the spring of 18 19 the people of both sections took up the 
Missouri question. Public meetings in Boston, New York, Phila- 
delphia, and even in Baltimore demanded that Congress should 




Map illustrating the Missouri Compromise Act of 1820 

The act did not mention the territory south of 36° 30', but the understanding 
■was that it was to be opened to slavery 



put a Stop to the spread of slavery beyond the Mississippi. The 
legislatures of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana warmly seconded 
this demand. 

The South generally took the opposite stand. Virginia and 
Kentucky called for the admission of Missouri without conditions, 
declaring that the attempt to restrict slavery was a direct attack 
on state rights. 



1S19-1820] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 317 

A new Congress met in December, 181 9, and the debate on the 
admission of Missouri was resumed. Missouri again petitioned 
for admission. The discussion of the question of restriction was 
then taken up in the Senate and very ably argued. Rufus King 
of New York was the champion of free soil/ and William Pink- 
ney, the brilhant Maryland lawyer, defended the cause of slavery.^ 
While the House was considering the Missouri question the dis- 
trict of Maine, recently separated from Massachusetts (§ 105), 
asked permission to enter the Union. The House, by a sectional 
vote, granted Maine her prayer. In the Senate the Committee on 
the Judiciary added a " rider" — the first on record — to the Maine 
bill which provided that Missouri should be admitted without 
restriction of slavery. As neither branch of Congress would 
yield, legislation on this point came to a standstill. 

324. The Missouri Compromise proposed and passed (1820). 
Senator Thomas of Illinois broke the deadlock. He had already 
proposed the famous amendment which got the name of the Mis- 
souri Compromise.^ He now presented that amendment again 
(February 17, 1820). It provided that the state of Missouri 
should be admitted with slavery, but that in all the remaining ter- 
ritory west of the Mississippi, north of the line 36° 30', — or the 
southern boundary of Missouri, — slavery should be " forever pro- 
hibited." It was understood that if the North accepted this 
proposition no further opposition would be made on the part of 
the South to the admission of T^Iaine. The Senate voted in favor 
of the Missouri Compromise ; when it came to the House it was 
carried (March 2, 1820) by the active help of Clay, who was then 
Speaker, and by the votes of eighteen northern members. 

Benton spoke of it later as "an immense concession" by the 
South to the nonslaveholding states ; but the friends of free soil 
looked upon it as a defeat. John Randolph of Virginia stigma- 
tized the Compromise as a "dirty bargain," and nicknamed the 

ISee Johnston's American Orations, II, 33. 

2 Ibid., 63. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 37. 



3i8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1820-1821 

northern men who had voted for it " Doughfaces "; only three 
of these men were reelected to Congress. 

Before signmg the Missouri Compromise Bill, President Mon- 
roe asked his cabinet, "Has Congress the constitutional right 
to prohibit slavery in a territory?" All of his cabinet, includ- 
ing Calhoun, and two other members from slave states, replied, 
" Yes." The President, who w^as also from a slave state, then 
signed the bill. 

The entrance of the two states of Maine and Missouri (1820, 
182 1) made the whole number twenty-four, — twelve slave and 
twelve free. 

325. What Jefferson and John Quincy Adams thought of the 
Compromise. Thus peace was obtained ; but Jefferson declared 
that an irritating geographical line had been established, and he 
feared that the question of the further extension of slavery would 
eventually make " separation preferable to eternal discord." *' We 
have the wolf by the ears," said he, " and we can neither hold 
him nor safely let him go." But notwithstanding Randolph's 
sneer, there were northern men who had no " dough " either in 
face or character who had given the measure their support. John 
Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, the " first leader in the long 
crusade against slavery," was one. He said : " I have favored the 
Missouri Compromise, believing it all that could be effected under 
the present Constitution, and from extreme unwillingness to put 
the Union to hazard. ... If the Union must be dissolved, 
slavery is precisely the question on w^hich it ought to break. For 
the present, however, this contest is laid asleep." The phrase 
"laid asleep" was wisely chosen, for the terrible question gained 
new strength through repose ; when it awoke many years later it 
showed itself, as Jefferson predicted it would, more irrepressible 
and more formidable than ever. 

326. The second Missouri Compromise ; admission of the state 
(1821) ; violation of the Compromise (1836). When Missouri 
formed her state constitution^ she forbade the entrance of free 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 40. 



1820-1821] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 319 

negroes. This provision raised another storm. The great majority 
of northern members in the House voted against admitting the 
state unless this article should be dropped. Henry Clay effected 
a compromise by which the Missouri Legislature pledged the state 
not to shut out any colored person who was a citizen of another 
state. Missouri was then admitted (182 1). 

Fifteen years later (1836), the Missouri Compromise was prac- 
tically violated by an act of Congress which extended the area of 
the state on the northwest. The portion added was as large as 
Rhode Island; the Compromise of 1820 had included it in ter- 
ritory which was to be free soil " forever," but this act made it 
part of a slave state. 

327. The Crawford Act; "machine politics"; the presidential 
election. Meanwhile important political changes had been taking 
place. Throughout the states it had now become the practice on 
the incoming of a new governor to remove officers who did not 
agree with him in politics. The tendency was to nationalize this 
system by applying it to federal officers. 

William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, an aspirant 
for the presidency, procured the passage of an act^ (1820) which 
greatly increased the power of federal patronage. Hitherto it 
had been the custom to continue the subordinate officers of the 
Treasury Department in service during good behavior. The 
Crawford Tenure of Office Act now limited their term to four 
years. This was the commencement of that regular system of 
rotation in office and of "political rewards" which continued until 
overturned by the Civil Service Reform movement more than 
half a century later (1872). 

Less than ten years after the passage of the Crawford Act 
party leaders, since known as " bosses," began to manage presi- 
dential nominations and elections by means of methods nick- 
named "machine politics." The so-called "gerrymander" — a 
political trick for securing elections by unfairly redistricting 
a state — had come into use since 1811. At the presidential 

ISee Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 41. 



1823-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 32 1 

emancipated all slaves and had enacted a law forbidding their 
importation, though it permitted peonage, a form of bondage 
worse in some respects than negro servitude. The American 
colonists in Texas paid no attention to this law ; they continued 
to hold negroes in servitude, and to take them there from the 
United States. 

Under the leadership of General Sam Houston of Tennessee, 
these colonists (1836) declared themselves independent of Mex- 
ican rule. Santa Aiia attacked an American garrison which held 
Fort Alamo and massacred the entire number. Houston's men 
rushed into the battle of San Jacinto with the cry, " Remember 
the Alamo ! " They won the victory and raised the flag of the 
" Lone Star State" at Austin, the capital. From that time onward 
a strong party in the South made incessant efforts to secure the 
annexation of Texas as a slave state. We shall see that, in spite 
of powerful opposition, they at length (1845) succeeded. 

330. The "Holy Alliance"; Russian America; suggestion of 
the Monroe Doctrine. After the final overthrow of Napoleon, 
Russia, Prussia, and Austria formed the *' Holy Alliance." Its 
object was to restore absolute monarchical power in Europe and 
in European dependencies. 

The Alliance encouraged Spain to prepare to subjugate her 
revolted and independent South American colonies ; at the same 
time the Czar thought it a favorable moment to make an attempt 
to e;xtend the area of the province of Russian America (now 
Alaska) on the Pacific coast. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of 
State, opposed the plans of Russia. He declared that it was a 
" law of nature " that we should eventually make the whole of 
North America our own. He told the Russian minister (1823) 
that " we should contest the rights of Russia to any territorial 
estabhshment on this continent," and that we should assume 
" that the American continents are no longer subjects for any 
new European establishments." 

A few months later, Mr. Canning, a member of the English cabi- 
net, proposed that the United States should cooperate with Great 



322 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1823- 

Britain in protecting the Spanish-American Republics against the 
designs of Spain and the '' Holy Alliance." President Monroe 
consulted Jefferson in regard to the matter. Jefferson said : " Our 
first and fundamental maxim should be never to entangle ourselves 
in the broils of Europe ; our second, never to suffer Europe to 
intermeddle with cisatlantic affairs." After discussion at a cabi- 
net meeting it was thought best to respectfully decline Canning's 
invitation of cooperation. 

331. The President promulgates the Monroe Doctrine. In his 
annual message^ (December 2, 1823) the President called the 
attention of Congress to the schemes of the Czar and of the "Holy 
Alliance." Speaking of Russia, he said, "The American conti- 
nents, by the free and independent condition which they have 
assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as 
subjects for colonization by any European powers." 

Passing next to the projects of Spain and the "Holy Alliance " 
with respect to the colonies which had declared their independence, 
he said, "We should consider any attempt on the part of the allied 
powers to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere 
as dangerous to our peace and safety." He added that should 
Europe make such an attempt, we could not view it "in any other 
light than the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward 
the United States." This memorable declaration obtained the 
name of the Monroe Doctrine.^ 

332. Application of the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doc- 
trine received the commendation of Webster and other eminent 
statesmen. It has been popularly understood to mean that we 
claim "America for Americans "; or that, in other words, we say 
to the European powers, " Since we do not meddle with your con- 
tinent, you must keep your hands off ours." Practically, how- 
ever, the Monroe Doctrine at the time it was promulgated was 
not held to commit us to anything more belligerent than what 
John Quincy Adams called " the mild compulsion of reason." 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 43. 

2 See Abstract of the Monroe Doctrine, facing page 322. 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

From President Monroe's Message to Congress, December 2, 1823. 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives : 

(I.) "At the proposal of the Russian imperial government 
. . . a full power and instructions have been transmitted 
to the minister of the United States at St. Petersburg, to 
arrange, by amicable negotiation, the respective rights and 
interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this 
continent." [Russia at that time, not satisfied with owning 
Alaska, claimed the greater part of the Oregon country, and 
was attempting to plant colonies on the coast of the Mexican 
State of California.] . . . "The occasion has been judged 
proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and 
interests of the United States are involved, that the American 
continents, by the free and independent condition which they have 
assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as 
subjects for future colonization by any European powers." 

(II.) "In the wars of the European powers, in matters relat- 
ing to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does it 
comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights 
are invaded, or seriously menaced, that we resent injuries or 
make preparations for our defence. With the movements in 
this hemisphere we are, of necessity, more immediately con- 
nected and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened 
and impartial observers. The political system of the Allied 
Powers is essentially different in this respect from that of 
America. . . . We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the 
amicable relations existing between the United States and 
those Powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on 
their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere 
as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colo- 
nies or dependencies of any European power we have not 
interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments 
who have declared their independence " [i.e. the Spanish 
South American Republics, and the Republic of Mexico] 
"and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on 
great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we 



could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppress- 
ing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, 
by any European power, in any other light than as the mani- 
festation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. ' ' 

Note on the Monroe Doctrine. — The essential part of what is popularly 
known as the Monroe Doctrine will be found in the passages printed in 
itahcs in the above message. 

Shortly after the defeat of Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo (1815) the 
sovereigns of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, who had been leagued against the 
great French commander, formed a " Holy AlUance." The object of this 
treaty or compact was to suppress any attempts to establish liberal and 
popular governments on the continent of Europe. 

In 1823 the report reached the United States that the Holy Alliance was 
preparing to help Spain conquer Mexico and the Republics in South America 
which had declared themselves independent of the Spanish monarch. 

About the same time Russia undertook to extend her possessions on the 
northwest coast of America so as to endanger our hold on Oregon. (See 
Paragraphs 216, 286,) 

John Quincy Adams, who was then Secretary of State, told the Russian 
minister that "we should contest the right of Russia to any territorial 
establishment on this continent, and that we should assume distinctly the 
principle that the American continents are no longer subjects for any new 
European colonial estabhshments." Mr. Adams believed that the whole of 
North America belonged to the United States by what he called a "law 
of nature." 

Later in the same year (1823) Mr. Canning, who was a member of the 
English cabinet, proposed to Mr. Rush, the American minister in London, 
that the United States should cooperate with England in preventing the 
Holy AUiance from interfering with the Spanish American Republics. 

President Monroe consulted Jefferson on this point and Jefferson replied : 
"Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves 
in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle 
with cis-Atlantic affairs." 

In these utterances of John Quincy Adams and Ex-President Jefferson 
we have the idea which President Monroe formulated in his Message. The 
late Dr. Justin Winsor says (Winsor's "America," vii. 524) that " Popular 
estimation has given a more defiant meaning to Monroe's language than was 
intended." But it is noteworthy that the Holy Alliance abandoned the proj- 
ect of interfering with the Spanish American Republics, and that Russia, by 
treaty of 1824, gave up all claims to territory south of 54° 40', or the southern 
boundary of Alaska. See Oilman's "James Monroe"; Morse's "John Quincy 
Adams" ; and Prof. Woolsey on the " Monroe Doctrine" in Johnson's " Uni- 
versal Cyclopaedia " (new edition). 



1824] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 323 

In the next administration (1826) the question came up whether 
the United States should undertake the defense of the Spanish- 
American RepubHcs (including Mexico) by armed force. Presi- 
dent Adams and the House of Representatives both declared that 
we were under no such obligations. 

As it is now understood, the Monroe Doctrine seems to express 
(i) the determination on our part not to interfere with the exist- 
ing possessions held in America by any European power ; (2) to 
resist by formal protest, or by such means as may be most expe- 
dient, any further attempts at colonization in America, or European 
interference with the affairs of independent states on either of the 
American continents ; and (3) to endeavor to secure the settle- 
ment of such questions, as in the case of Mexico (1868) and of 
Venezuela (1896), by international arbitration^ (§§ 520, 564). 

After the enunciation of this principle Russia made a treaty 
with the United States. The Czar gave up all claims on the 
Pacific coast of America south of 54° 40', — or the present south- 
ern boundary of Alaska, — and granted to American citizens the 
right to trade on the coast north of that parallel and to fish in 
its waters. 

The " Holy Alliance " ceased to encourage projects for the over- 
throw of the Spanish Republics. This change was due partly to the 
decided language we had used in the Monroe Doctrine, and partly 
to the fact that England, following our example, had recognized 
the independence of those Republics. 

333. The tariff of 1824. The tariff of 1816 (§ 314) was de- 
cidedly protective with regard to cotton and woolen goods, but 
not conspicuously so with respect to other articles. The middle 
and western states, with certain sections of New England, now 
demanded higher duties on wool, iron, and hemp. Clay wished 
to make the Luiited States, as far as possible, independent of the 
industries of Europe (§314). With this aim he came forward in 
a great speech as the champion of what he called " a genuine 

1 See Secretary Olney's interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1895 and Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's in 1902, 



324 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1824 

American policy." In all tariff legislation preceding that of 1816 
(§ 314), revenue had been the main object and protection the 
incident, but Clay, taking the " broad-construction " view (§ 256), 
now carried through a bill (1824) in favor of "protection for the 
sake of protection." This, however, he explained to be a tem- 
porary measure to enable our " infant manufactures " to perfect 
themselves. Then, said he, we shall be ready " to put aside 
protection and to enter upon the freest exchanges." ^ 

Webster spoke against Clay's policy, and the South, w'hich had 
changed its attitude (§ 314), was almost solidly opposed to such 
a measure. That section now had a constantly increasing foreign 
demand for their cotton, and found it for their interest to purchase 
English goods in exchange. The new tariff enacted by Congress 
(1824)^ fixed the average scale of duties at a considerably higher 
rate than the act of 18 16 had done. The South denounced the 
measure as " sectional, unconstitutional, and unjust." Later, this 
denunciation culminated, as w^e shall see, in open nulHfication 
and threats of secession. 

334. Lafayette's visit. In 1824 Congress invited Lafayette to 
visit the United States as the " nation's guest." He reached New 
York in the summer of that year, after more than forty years' 
absence. He came, as he said, to see the " beloved land " of 
which it had been his " happy lot to become an early soldier and 
an adopted son." 

In the dark days of the Revolution he had generously opened 
his purse and risked his life in our cause. He was now old and 
poor ; but America convinced him that he w^as not forgotten. He 
spent more than a year (1824-18 2 5) in traveling through the coun- 
try, and visited every state in the Union. It has been said that 
" only Washington himself, had he risen from the grave, could 
have called forth deeper feelings of reverence and affection." 
Clay welcomed him in an eloquent address made in behalf of the 
nation, and with his own hands Lafayette laid the corner stone of 

iSee Speeches of Henry Clay, I, 471; Benton's Thirty Years' View, 1,32, 314; 
II> 113- ^ See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 173. 



1824] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT . 325 

Bunker Hill Monument. Congress voted him the sum of $200,- 
000 together with a township of 23,000 acres of land in Florida, 
and he returned to France in the new frigate Brandywi7ie (§ 215), 
named in honor of his services in that battle. 

335. Overthrow of ''King Caucus"; the presidential election 
(1824); charge of " a corrupt bargain." Washington and John 
Adams had been chosen candidates for the presidency by popular 
agreement, but in 1800 the system of nominating presidential 
candidates by Congressional caucus began, although it was not 
fully established until four years later (§ 284) . This very undemo- 
cratic method roused vigorous opposition; in 1820 the mem- 
bers of Congress made no nomination, and in 1824 the force of 
public opinion finally defeated the despotic " King Caucus." ^ 
The four leading candidates for the presidency in 1824 were John 
Quincy Adams, who, as Secretary of State under Monroe, was " heir 
apparent" (§ 314), Henry Clay, W. H. Crawford (§ 327), and 
Andrew Jackson, who was wholly unknown in politics. As three 
of them had never before tried their powers in such a contest, the 
campaign was called " the scrub race for the presidency." All four 
were nominally members of the Democratic-Republican party, — 
the only national party then in existence (§ 310). 

Adams and Clay were "broad constructionists" (§ 256) who 
strongly favored the expenditure of a part of the public money for 
the building of roads, canals, and other *' internal improvements." 
Crawford and Jackson, on the contrary, held " strict-construction " 
views (§ 256) on this point, and beUeved such "improvements" 
should be made by the states themselves at their own expense. 
Again, Adams and Clay both favored " protection," while Crawford 
declared himself for a revenue tariff only. Jackson's views on this 
question were unknown, but he was supposed to incline toward 
" protection." 

In the end the contest narrowed itself down to the choice of 
either Jackson or Adams. Previous to this time the presidential 

1 See Stanwood's History of the Presidency, ch. xi ; McKee's National Conven- 
tions, 20. 



326 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1824-1825 

electors had generally been chosen by the state legislatures, but 
in 1824 they were chosen, in eighteen states out of twenty-four, 
by the people. The popular vote was now recorded for the 
first time. The total number of ballots cast was 352,062, and 
it was estimated that the Jackson electors received upwards of 
50,000 more votes than the Adams electors. Hence, so far as the 
direct voice of the people could decide it, Jackson was successful. 
None of the presidential candidates, however, obtained a clear 
majority of the electoral votes; the Constitution, therefore, 
required the House of Representatives to "choose by ballot one 
of them for President" (Appendix, page xvii). 

In the House, Clay's friends united with those of Adams and 
chose the latter, John C. Calhoun having been elected Vice Pres- 
ident. The excitement over this announcement was intense. 
The House of Representatives had followed strictly constitutional 
methods ; but Jackson's friends did not hesitate to declare that he 
was entitled to the presidency, since, of the two chief candidates, 
he had received a majority of the popular vote. 

John Randolph denounced the coalition of Adams' and Clay's 
supporters as a '' combination of the Puritan and the blackleg"; 
and it was openly charged that Clay, by a " corrupt bargain," had 
sold himself to Adams in return for the promise of the appoint- 
ment of Secretary of State in the latter's cabinet. Clay indig- 
nantly denied this report ; but as Adams made him Secretary of 
State, his denial went for nothing. Jackson himself was hot 
against Clay, and privately declared that this "Judas of the 
West" had deliberately betrayed him. 

336. Summary. Following the chronological order, the most 
important events in Monroe's administration were : (i) the pur- 
chase of Florida; (2) the Missouri Compromise, whereby slavery 
was admitted to that state, but " forever " prohibited from all other 
parts of the Louisiana territory north of the parallel of 36" 30'; 
(3) the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine, which denied the 
right of European powers to interfere with affairs, outside of their 
respective colonies, in either of the American continents. 



1825-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 327 

John Quincy Adams (Democratic-Republican), One 
Term (1825-1829) 

337. Inaugural address ; ''internal improvements." The key- 
note of the President's (§ 335) inaugural address was his urgent 
recommendation that the national government should encourage 
a great system of roads, canals, and other public works. Monroe 
strongly favored such a policy, but thought that it required an 
amendment to the Constitution to authorize it. Mr. Adams did 
not think such an amendment necessary. As a " broad construc- 
tionist " (§ 256) he was positive that the Constitution did sanc- 
tion works which " would bind the Union more closely together." 
But Mr. Adams went further ; following the suggestions of Wash- 
ington, he earnestly recommended the establishment of a national 
university and a naval school. The latter he considered a neces- 
sary complement to the United States Mihtary Academy founded 
(1802) at West Point. Twenty years later (1845), Congress estab- 
lished the Naval Academy at Annapolis. 

Congress was ready to grant appropriations to facilitate com- 
munication which would render every part of the country " more 
accessible to, and dependent on, the other." The Cumberland 
or National Road (§ 328) was pushed westward from Zanesville, 
Ohio, toward the Mississippi. It not only helped to fill the West 
with population, but it greatly strengthened the bonds of union 
between the East and the West. Besides this work, extensive 
coast and river surveys were made, and the construction of 
important canals undertaken. The acti\ity of the government 
was so great that this has been called " the epoch of internal 
improvements." In the course of Mr. Adams' administration 
nearly ^14,000,000 w^as spent on works of "permanent benefit 
to the country." Of this sum more than $4,000,000 was laid out 
on roads and canals. This amount exceeded the total expendi- 
ture for such purposes of all Mr. Adams' predecessors. 

The President congratulated the nation that these public enter- 
prises had been carried out " without adding a dollar to the taxes 



328 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1825- 

or debts of the community." Later, he had an unexpected 
opportunity to show his faith by his works. He was to throw the 
first shovelful of earth at the opening of a new canal between the 
East and the West. He chanced to meet with some obstacle, 
and he at once pulled off his coat and began to handle his spade 
with such energy that the dehghted multitude cheered to the 
echo. It was perhaps the only act of his entire presidential career 
which the people hailed wiHTapplause, for Mr. Adams was a man 
whose virtues made few friends ; he never gained popularity and 
he certainly never coveted it. 

338. The Erie Canal and its results. As early as 1808 Judge 
Forman of Onondaga, New York, moved in the Legislature that 
steps be taken toward connecting the waters of the Hudson with 
those of Lake Erie. The motion was not carried into effect at the 
time, but later James Geddes was commissioned to make a pre- 
liminary survey. The War of 18 12 convinced the people of New 
York that the work of constructing the proposed canal could 
not be safely postponed. The cost of transportation from the 
seaboard to Detroit was fifty cents a pound for ammunition and 
sixty dollars a barrel for flour. 

It was evident that a continuous waterway between New York 
City and the West would be of incalculable advantage to both sec- 
tions. On the one hand, it would open a market to the western 
farmer for his produce ; on the other, it would furnish an outlet 
for eastern goods and imports. Governor Clinton urged the 
Legislature to begin the important work without further delay. 
Finally, his zeal overcame all opposition, and in the summer of 
1 81 7 a gang of laborers began to excavate the trench which 
opponents ridiculed as " Clinton's Big Ditch." 

The entire canal was completed in the autumn of 1825. It 
extended from Albany to Buffalo, a distance of 363 miles, and 
tapped Lake Erie at a height of several hundred feet above tide 
water. The average cost was nearly $20,000 a mile, and it was 
built by the state when its population hardly exceeded a million, 
and when it had no surplus revenue to spare, The work was 



1825-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 329 

substantially done, with '' immense embankments, noble aque- 
ducts, and massive locks." 

When (October 26, 1825) the waters of Lake Erie were let 
into the great trench. Governor Clinton, attended by many dis- 
tinguished men, made the journey from Buffalo to Albany and 
thence to New York City in a fleet of gayly decorated canal 
boats. Fieldpieces had been placed along the entire route at 
intervals of about five miles ; and, when the canal was opened, 
this cannon telegraph flashed the news from Buffalo to New 
York in ninety minutes. Kegs of water from Lake Erie were 
carried on the boats from Buffalo to the mouth of the Hudson. 
The governor completed the celebration by emptying the con- 
tents of one of the kegs into the salt water. By this act he 
commemorated, as he declared, '' the navigable communication 
accomplished between our mediterranean seas and the Atlantic 
Ocean." 

The canal shortened the time from Albany to Buffalo one half ; 
reduced rates on freight from $88 a ton to less than $6, and later 
to $3 ; and greatly facilitated the movement of emigration to the 
West. Furthermore, it stimulated settlements all along the line. 
These have since grown into prosperous towns and wealthy cities. 
Finally, the canal helped to make the city of New York " the great 
distributing center of the North." ^ 

339. " The great Western march." On the day of Mr. Adams' 
inauguration the greater part of Ohio was still covered with forests, 
and most of Illinois was a prairie wilderness. But on the Erie 
Canal and the National Road (§§ 328, 337, 338) a procession of 
boats and wagons crowded with emigrants from the East was 
steadily moving toward the Mississippi. The Ohio (§258), from 
Pittsburg, was alive with barges passing down the river and car- 
rying whole households, with their cattle, hogs, horses, and sheep. 
A number of steamboats were regularly running not only on the 
rivers of the West but on the Great Lakes, and they contributed 
their part toward aiding the emigration. 

I See McMaster's United States, V, 132; Semple's American History, 267. 



330 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1825 

In the decade between 1820 and 183-0 Michigan Territory 
gained 260 per cent in the number of its inhabitants ; Illinois, 
180; Arkansas territory, 142 ; Indiana, 133; and Ohio increased 
from a population of about 576,000 to nearly a million. 

The United States offered land at two dollars an acre and gave 
the settler ample time to pay for it. Eventually the farmer could 
get a quarter section, or 160 acres, for about $26, so that practi- 
cally he received his homestead as a gift from the government. 
In every township one section, or a thirty-sixth of the public lands, 
was set apart to maintain free schools. Cheap land and free edu- 
cation both stimulated the emigrant's '' great Western march " to 
that land of promise destined to become the center of population 
and of political power. 

No official record of immigration from abroad was begun until 
1820, but between 1820 and 1830 about 150,000 foreigners set- 
tled in the United States. A large proportion of them made their 
homes in the West. More than one half of these newcomers were 
from the British Isles. The great tide of immigration (§ 374), 
however, did not begin until many years later (1847). 

340. Dispute with Georgia concerning Indian land cessions. By 
a treaty made with the chief of the Creek Indians, all lands owned 
by that tribe in Georgia w^ere ceded (1825) to the United States. 
The Creeks protested against this cession, declaring that it had 
been made by certain Indians without the sanction of their tribe. 
President Adams ordered the enforcement of the treaty to be sus- 
pended until General Gaines could confer wdth the Creek nation. 

Governor Troup of Georgia determined to have the ceded 
lands surveyed at once, as a step toward the expulsion of the 
Indians. He threatened to call out the military force of the 
state to resist General Gaines and his' body of federal troops. 
The Creeks at length (1826) signed a new treaty by which they 
bound themselves to give up all their lands in Georgia and to 
emigrate across the Mississippi. 

Before the transfer was completed a serious dispute arose 
between the governor of Georgia and the President of the United 



1825-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 331 

States respecting the survey of a part of the Creek country. At 
one time it seemed as if the controversy must be settled by the 
sword. Happily, however, a way was found to compromise the 
difficulty ; but Governor Troup predicted that eventually the slave 
states must " confederate " to protect slavery.^ 

Later (1828), Georgia assumed jurisdiction over the lands of 
the Cherokee reservation held by that semiciviHzed tribe under 
treaty wdth the federal government. The President protested, 
but the House justified the action of the state. Practically Georgia 
nuUified the Cherokee treaty and afterward (1831) refused to obey 
a decision of the United States Supreme Court ^ which sustained 
the rights claimed by the Indians (§ 355). 

341. The Panama Congress; new political parties; the tem- 
perance movement. Meanwhile the Spanish- American Republics 
had invited the United States to send delegates to a Congress at 
Panama to discuss what action should be taken respecting Euro- 
pean interference or colonization (§ 332). Congress accepted 
the invitation, but passed an informal resolution declining to take 
any definite joint action with the Spanish-American governments. 
The Panama Congress met, but dissolved before our delegates 
arrived, and nothing more was done. 

Shortly after Mr. Adams entered office his friends and Clay's 
united in forming a new party, which took the name of National 
Republicans and later that of Whigs. They stood on the plat- 
form of "broad construction" (§ 256); they advocated a pro- 
tective tariff and demanded " internal improvements " (§ 337) by 
the national government. The regular Democratic-Republicans, 
under the lead of the Jackson men, soon became known as Demo- 
crats; generally speaking, they favored- the " strict-construction " 
(§ 256) interpretation of the Constitution, and the southern por- 
tion of the party laid stress on state rights. The chief public 
questions of the day were the maintenance X)i the United States 

1 See Hart's Formation of the Union, 255 ; Von Hoist's Constitutional History 
of the United States, I, 443-448, 

2 See Abstract of Constitutional Decisions by the Court, facing page 266. 



332 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1825 

Bank (§§ 314, 319), the Tariff (§§ 342-345), and Internal 
Improvements (§§ 314, 337)- 

A third political party had now come into existence. A man 
named Morgan had published a book claiming to reveal the secrets 
of Freemasonry. Morgan suddenly disappeared, and many persons 
believed that the Masons had made away with him. The excite- 
ment caused the organization of an Anti-Masonic party in western 
New York, which bound itself to oppose the election of any 
member of the Masonic Order to public office. The new party 
generally voted with the National Republicans ; it exercised con- 
siderable influence for several years, but then lost power. 

When Mr. Adams entered office liquor was freely used by all 
classes of society. The mechanic, the farm laborer, and the 
merchant all thought that they must have it ; it was bountifully 
supplied at weddings, funerals, college commencements, and 
ministerial ordinations ; and children used to buy it by the cent's 
worth at the corner groceries. 

Dr. Lyman Beecher of Connecticut appears to have led the 
movement of reform (181 1). The result of his work was the 
establishment of the " Massachusetts Society for the Suppression 
of Intemperance" (1813), followed in 1826 by the organization 
of the "American Society for the Promotion of Temperance," 
which ten years later (1836) took its stand on the platform of 
total abstinence. Four years afterward (1840) the " Washingto- 
nian Temperance Society " was formed at Baltimore to reclaim 
habitual drunkards. 

Eventually the Total Abstinence movement began to demand 
the entire suppression of liquor selling, and in 1851 Maine passed 
the first prohibitory law. Later, a number of other states made 
experiments in the same direction and decided against prohibi- 
tion ; but five — Vermont, New Hampshire, Kansas, and North 
and South Dakota -^ joined with Maine in absolutely forbidding 
the sale of all intoxicating drink as a beverage. The law, how- 
ever, has encountered many serious obstacles, which have gen- 
erally checked its rigid enforcement in the large towns. 



1825-1827] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 333 

In 1872 a new political party — the Prohibitionists — entered 
the national field. Later, they pledged themselves by their plat- 
form to add a prohibitory amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States. 

342. Commercial treaties; West India trade; the Harrisburg 
Convention and the tariff. The President negotiated a great 
number of commercial treaties which secured a large and pros- 
perous trade with the Spanish- American RepubHcs and with other 
powers. In 1822 Great Britain had opened the ports of her 
possessions in the West Indies (§§ 249, 265, 266, 312) to us on 
advantageous terms, but in 1825 the English government again 
cut us off from that very lucrative trade. 

President Adams made energetic attempts to induce England 
to reopen those ports to us, but failed to accomplish anything. 
Finally, by virtue of a law passed under the preceding adminis- 
tration, he issued a proclamation (1827) of retaliation, and 
declared that all commercial intercourse with those ports was 
prohibited. 

In the summer of 1827 a National Convention of Protectionists 
met at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They were dissatisfied with the 
tariff of 1824 (§333), and demanded that higher duties should 
be levied on woolens, iron, hemp, and other products. The object 
of the convention was twofold : first, to protect home industries ; 
and secondly, to retaliate on Great Britain for her exclusion of 
these articles. 

343. The so-called " tariff of abominations." At the next ses- 
sion of Congress (1827) a tariff bill embodying the measures of 
the Protectionists was brought in. Clay, Adams, and Jackson, 
who were candidates for the presidency, advocated it. But the 
division on it was almost purely sectional ; the North and West 
were for it, while the South opposed it (§333). In the case of 
the tariffs of 1816 and 1824 (§§ 314, ;^^2i) Daniel Webster had 
declared himself the champion of a free- trade or revenue tariff 
except in the case of manufactures already established, and which 
seemed to require defense against foreign competition. He now 



334 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1828 

came out strongly for protection. He took the ground that since 
New England had been forced by the act of 1824 to invest a large 
part of her capital in woolen manufactures, it was the duty of the 
national government to guard that capital against sudden and 
ruinous loss. 

Southern men protested against this poHcy. Cotton, rice, and 
tobacco then constituted the chief American exports, and they 
were exchanged for articles of European manufacture on advan- 
tageous terms. The South wished, therefore, to keep up this trade 
as it stood, and to purchase her goods where she could get them 
cheapest. 

A senator from Maryland denounced the proposed system of 
protection as a *' tariff of abominations," and John Randolph 
of Virginia said it should be called " a bill to rob and plunder 
nearly one half of the Union for the benefit of the residue." 
Senator Hayne of South Carolina went further and declared that 
the proposed law " was calculated to sever the bonds of the 
Union." 

344. Passage of the tariff bill. After a violent debate of six 
weeks the new tariff bill was passed (1828) amidst the wildest 
excitement.^ The vote in the Senate stood 26 to 21, and in the 
House 105 to 94. The act increased the duties from the previous 
rates of 1824. The rate on cottons was left unchanged, but that 
on hemp was increased nearly 100 per cent, while that on 
woolens was more than double that of the tariff of 1824. For 
this reason it is often called the ''Woolen Tariff." Some of the 
most obnoxious features of the act were incorporated in it by its 
enemies as a " political job." They hoped thereby either to kill 
the measure or to kill Adams' chances for a second presidential 
term if he signed the bill.^ This tariff ''represented the high- 
water mark of protective legislation before the Civil War." 

345. Opposition of South Carolina to the tariff. The people of 
many towns in South Carolina held mass meetings at w^hich they 

iSee Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 176, 181. 

2 See Rhodes' United States, I, 40, or the Cambridge United States, yj^. 



1828-1829] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 335 

resolved to wear homespun and to refuse to buy any cloth made 
north of the Potomac. South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, 
and Alabama declared the new tariff a violation of the Constitution. 
Calhoun drew up an "Exposition and Protest"^ which, after 
some changes, was adopted by the Legislature of South Carolina. 
The " Exposition " denounced the tariff as an act of tyranny on 
the part of the majority, and as directly contrary to the plain 
spirit of the Constitution. The manifesto further declared that, 
should the federal government persist in enforcing the protective 
system, it would be " the sacred duty " of South Carolina " to 
arrest the progress of a usurpation . . . which . . . must cor- 
rupt the public morals and destroy the liberty of the country." 
Webster considered the situation very grave. He wrote, " In 
December, 1828, 1 became thoroughly convinced that the plan of 
a Southern Confederacy had been received with favor by a great 
many of the political men of the South." 

346. The presidential election. At the presidential election 
(1828) the candidates were chosen by common consent and 
indorsed by the legislatures of the states (§ 335). They were 
John Quincy Adams, National Republican (§ 341), and Andrew 
Jackson, Democrat. The campaign was one of great personal 
bitterness. Niles declared in his Register that if the hundredth 
part of what had been said about the two candidates was true, 
both of them should be sent to the penitentiary for life. Jackson 
carried the day, and, with John C. Calhoun as Vice President, 
was elected by a large majority, the electoral vote standing 178 
to 83 and the popular vote 647,231 to 509,097. 

347. Summary. The principal events of President Adams' 
administration were : (i) the impetus/ given to the making of 
roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" by the national 
government ; (2) the completion and opening of the Erie Canal 
by the state of New York; (3) the great movement of population 
westward ; (4) the enactment of the high protective tariff of 
1828, which excited the violent opposition of the South. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 44, 45. 



336 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1829 

Andrew Jackson (Democrat), Two Terms (1829-1837) 

348. The West comes to the front; Jackson's election and 
inauguration. The election (§ 346) and inauguration of the new 
chief magistrate showed that a political revolution had taken 
place. Every one of the seven preceding Presidents, from Jef- 
ferson to John Quincy Adams (1801-1829), had filled the office 
of Secretary of State. All were of eastern birth and had been 
educated at college. Now the rough, self-willed, strong-limbed 
pioneers of the West who were clearing and planting the wilder- 
ness beyond the Alleghenies (§ 339) resolved to put a fresh 
man at the helm. The masses, for the first time, emphatically 
"rejected the leadership of the classes." 

They felt that Jackson was one of themselves. He was the 
son of a Scotch-Irish immigrant (§§ 52, 173), and was born in a 
log cabin in the backwoods. He had never been Secretary of 
State, but the people of the West believed him " heir apparent " 
(§ 314) to the presidency by right of nature. They put him 
forward to break up the routine of "cabinet succession," and as 
their chosen representative of genuine western democracy. 

The old and conservative sections of the country had been fully 
represented in the Executive ; in Jackson, the Indian fighter, the 
" hero of New Orleans," the new forces at work in America were 
embodied and were to come to the front. Never had such a 
multitude been seen in Washington as on the day of his inaugu- 
ration. Men stood with their muddy boots on the satin-covered 
chairs in the White House to get a sight of the President of their 
choice. Eastern men looked on in dismay, and Judge Story 
wrote home that " the reign of King Mob seemed triumphant." 

349. Removals from office. More than twelve years before, 
Jackson had written to Monroe, after the latter's election to the 
presidency (18 17), urging him not to remove government officers 
for political reasons. He said then, " Now is the time to exter- 
minate the monster called party spirit"; but since that period he 
had changed. He entered office fully convinced that he had once 



1829-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 337 

been cheated out of the presidency by a " corrupt bargain " (§ 335). 
He beHeved that " bargain " had deliberately thwarted the will of 
the people and that the government belonged to those who had 
elected him. The editor of the Washi?igton Telegraph, the organ 
of the new administration, declared that he took it for granted that 
Jackson would "reward his friends and punish his enemies." 

Jackson himself was eager to begin what he called " the task 
of reform." He was convinced that Adams and Clay had filled 
the public offices with "babbling politicians" who ought to be 
removed for the good of the country ; but, as a matter of fact, 
Adams had kept his political and personal enemies in office and 
had refused to give places to his friends and supporters. 

Jackson's poHcy anticipated Senator Marcy's rule, " To the 
victors belong the spoils." He made removals by wholesale, and 
the working of the Crawford Act (§ 327) helped to make more 
vacancies. At Washington the distress and terror of the " ins " 
was only matched by the rapacity of the " outs." In the first 
month of his administration Jackson dismissed more men from 
office than all the Presidents who had preceded him (§ 279). 
Before the close of the first year not less than two thousand office- 
holders had been replaced by adherents of the new Executive. 

350. The President declares the removals necessary ; the 
'* Kitchen Cabinet"; foreign affairs. The President believed 
that these changes were in every way an advantage. He declared 
that unless such removals were regularly made, subordinate 
officials would " acquire a habit of looking with indifference upon 
the public interests," and would consider their positions "as a 
species of property." Hence he earnestly advocated " rotation," 
and urged Congress to extend it. Jefferson and Madison had 
already protested against the introduction of this system when 
applied to clerks in departments. Webster, Calhoun, Clay, and 
Benton added their remonstrances, but in vain, for rotation in 
office, first systematically begun by the Crawford Act (§ 327), 
now became firmly established. Through it the " spoils system " 
held unbroken sway for more than forty years. 



338 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i830 

Unlike his predecessors, Jackson did not hold cabinet councils, 
but depended largely on the suggestions of a few intimate friends, 
who were popularly known as the " Kitchen Cabinet." Amos 
Kendall of Massachusetts, a man of considerable ability, with a 
"great talent for silence" and for work, was the leader of this 
influential group. 

In his foreign relations Jackson gained two signal triumphs 
early in his administration. He succeeded in negotiating a treaty 
with Great Britain which granted us the long-coveted, unre- 
stricted, direct trade with the West Indies (§§ 265, 266, 342); 
and he induced France to pay us 25,000,000 francs to settle our 
second set of claims for spoliation (§ 270), which, in this case, 
Napoleon had committed on our commerce (§ 295). 

351. "Webster's reply to Hayne on state sovereignty. In the 
first Congress which met under Jackson, Senator Foot of Con- 
necticut proposed (1830) making an inquiry respecting the sale 
of government lands. His resolution led unexpectedly to the 
*' great debate " between Webster and Hayne on the nature of 
the Union.^ This question went to the very foundations of the 
government. It asked. Did the Constitution create an inde- 
structible nation, or did it simply establish a league beween sover- 
eign states which may be broken by the action of any member of 
that league? Such a discussion necessarily involved an inquiry 
into the right of nullification and disunion. 

Senator Hayne of South Carolina spoke in the interest of the 
league theory of the Constitution. Addressing Mr. Calhoun, the 
presiding officer, the senator said, " Sir, I am one of those who 
believe that the very life of our system is the independence of the 
states, and that there is no evil more to be deprecated than the con- 
solidation of the government." Webster replied : " Sir, ... I am a 
Unionist. ... I would strengthen the ties that hold us together." 

Hayne rejoined by quoting Jefferson's declaration that " sub- 
mission to a government of unHmited power" was a greater 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 46 ; Johnston's American Orations, I, 
^33> 248; Hart's American History Leaflets, No. 30. 



1830-1833] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 339 

calamity than "a dissolution of the Union." He furthermore 
contended that both Jefferson and Madison considered the Con- 
stitution to be simply a compact made between sovereign states. 
Finally, referring to the Kentucky Resolutions (§ 273), he 
insisted that in case Congress violated the Constitution, '' nullifi- 
cation " by the sovereign states was, according to Jefferson, " the 
rightful remedy" (§ 273). 

The next day the Senate chamber was packed in anticipation 
of Webster's reply. On the morning of that day a New England 
senator said to him, '' It is a critical moment, . . . and it is high 
time that the people of this country should know what the Con- 
stitution is:' Webster answered, " By the blessing of Heaven, 
they shall learn this day, before the sun goes down, what I under- 
stand it to be." In his reply Webster reached the high-water 
mark of his power as an orator. 

He argued with consummate ability that the Constitution was 
not a compact made between sovereign states, but that it was an 
indissoluble government "■ made for the people, made by the 
people, and answerable to the people." The effect of his speech 
throughout the North was widespread, deep, and permanent; 
patriotism had a new birth, and thousands were made to feel 
that the American Republic rested on a foundation which could 
not be shaken. 

A few months later, at a public dinner given in honor of Jeffer- 
son's birthday, the President gave the significant toast, "Our 
federal LTnion : it must be preserved." Calhoun responded for 
the South with the sentiment, <' Liberty dearer than Union." 
Shortly after this Jackson and Calhoun ceased to hold friendly 
relations with each other. They represented antagonistic prin- 
ciples ; the President upheld the sovereignty of the nation, the 
Vice President that of the states. After Calhoun returned to the 
Senate he offered a set of resolutions (1833) upholding nullifica- 
tion and secession as constitutional rights. That doctrine had 
never before been openly defended in the upper House. Webster 
replied that nullification and secession meant revolution, and that 



340 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1830- 

it was logically impossible to derive from the Constitution the 
revolutionary right to overthrow it. 

352. Rise of the Abolitionists. Congress had hoped that the 
Missouri Compromise (§ 324) would put a stop to the discussion 
of slavery ; but John Randolph of Virginia, who was himself a 
slaveholder, declared it impossible. '' You might as well," said 
he, " try to hide a volcano in full eruption." 

Many leading southern men deplored holding human beings as 
property. Roger B. Taney of Maryland, later appointed Chief 
Justice of the United States Supreme Court, said of slavery that 
it was "a blot on our national character," which he hoped would 
in time be "wiped away." By 1826 more than a hundred anti- 
slavery societies existed at the South, or nearly three times as 
many as there were in the North. They advocated gradual 
emancipation and colonization. Although in 1820 Henry Clay, 
on humanitarian grounds, had earnestly advocated the extension 
of slavery to the territory west of the Mississippi (§ 322), he now 
(1827) declared, in an address before one of these societies, that 
slavery was " the deepest stain upon the character of our coun- 
try." He added : " If I could only be instrumental in ridding of 
this foul blot that revered state which gave me birth, or that other 
not less beloved state which kindly adopted me as her son, I 
would not exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjoy 
for the honor of all the triumphs ever decreed to the most suc- 
cessful conqueror." . 

But the free negro was literally "a man without a country." 
The South wanted to get rid of him ; the North refused to 
welcome him, and with very few exceptions it denied him the 
right to education and the right to vote. In short, the free black 
man had to dwell apart like the leper in Israel.-^ 

No one, not even John Quincy Adams, soon to become the great 
champion of the antislavery movement in Congress, could then 
point out a remedy for the evil of slavery. The truth is that it had 

1 See Gordy's Political History of the United States, II, ch. xxii ; Thorpe's Con- 
stitutional History of the American People, I, ch. xii. 



1831-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 341 

grown to be an integral part of the social, economic, and politi- 
cal life of the South, and that northern manufacturers, merchants, 
and shipowners had directly or indirectly helped to bring about 
this condition of things. Dr. Channing fully realized this when 
he wrote from Boston to Daniel Webster (1828) : " I know that 
our Southern brethren interpret every word from this region on 
the subject of slavery as an expression of hostihty. ... It seems 
to me . . . we ought to say to them distinctly : ' We consider 
slavery as your calamity, not your crime, and we will share with 
you the burden of putting an end to it. We will consent that 
the public lands shall be appropriated to this object, or that the 
general government shall be clothed with power to apply a por- 
tion of revenue to it.' ... I am the more sensitive on this sub- 
ject from my increased solicitude for the preservation of the 
Union. I know no public interest so important as this." 

353. Garrison's " Liberator " ; the Nat Turner insurrection ; the 
American Antislavery Society. Benjamin Lundy, in his paper, 
The Genius of Universal Emancipation, published at Baltimore, 
asked that the negro be gradually freed and colonized. On New 
Year's Day, 183 1, WiUiam Lloyd Garrison of Boston pubhshed 
the first number of the Liberator. He demanded " immediate 
and unconditional emancipation." His editorial was a war cry. 
" I am in earnest," said he ; "I will not equivocate — I will not 
excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard'' 
His words opened thirty years of conflict, which were to end in 
the war of secession and in the downfall of slavery. Garrison 
spared neither North nor South. Speaking of New England, he 
said, " I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, 
detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy 
more frozen than among slave owners themselves." Eventually, 
Dr. Channing (§ 352) came over to Garrison's position and put 
emancipation before the preservation of the Union. 

That summer (1831) Nat Turner, a Virginia slave, headed a 
negro insurrection in which more than sixty whites were murdered. 
The excitement over that " Bloody Monday " was terrible, and 



342 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1832-1835 

Garrison was accused of having stirred up the insurrection by his 
articles in the Liberator. He denied that he countenanced negro 
rebelHon, but the South refused to believe him, and the state of 
Georgia offered a reward of $5000 for his seizure, followed by his 
conviction in that state. This, of course, was offering a premium 
on kidnapping. As a matter of fact. Garrison never condemned 
slavery in stronger terms than a number of leading Virginians did 
in discussing the Nat Turner insurrection in the Legislature, and 
in demanding that measures be taken for gradual emancipation. 

The next year (1832) the New England Antislavery Society 
was organized, and the year following (1833) ^^ American Anti- 
slavery Society came into existence at Philadelphia. It declared, 
" Slavery is a crime." It affirmed that all slaves " ought instantly 
to be set free" ; it, however, took the ground that Congress had 
no constitutional right to interfere with slavery in the southern 
states, but demanded the suppression of the domestic slave trade 
and the abolition of negro bondage in the territories. Finally, the 
society declared that the people of the free states were under the 
highest obligations '^ to remove slavery by moral and political 
action, as prescribed in the Constitution of the United States." 
This declaration on the part of the society marks an era in Amer- 
ican history. Within less than nine years from that date the anti- 
slavery organizations in the free states numbered two thousand, 
with a membership of two hundred thousand. 

354. Abolition publications destroyed ; Garrison mobbed ; dis- 
union agitation. The excitement at the South over northern anti- 
slavery publications constantly increased. At length the citizens 
of Charleston (1835) broke open the post office and publicly 
burned all such matter found in the mails. A bill was introduced 
in Congress to exclude this inflammatory material in the future. 
Calhoun, then in the Senate, declared that if it should be rejected, 
he should say to the people of the South : " Look to yourselves ; 
you have nothing to hope from others." The bill did not pass, 
and the commotion in both sections of the country rose to a still 
more dangerous pitch. Garrison was assailed in Boston (1835) 



1835-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 343 

by a " highly respectable " mob. Had not the mayor ordered the 
police to lock him up in jail for safety, the mob would probably 
have ducked him in the Frog Pond on the Common, dyed his 
face and hands an indelible black, and then given him a coat of 
tar and feathers. 

A number of years afterward (1843) the Massachusetts Anti- 
slavery Society resolved that the Union ought to be immediately 
dissolved. The Libei-ator later came out with two standing mot- 
toes. The first was "No union with slaveholders." The sec- 
ond, adopting the words of the prophet Isaiah, declared, "The 
United States Constitution is a ^ covenant with death ' and an 
* agreement with hell ' ! " 

By this time a number of leading men at the South, who had 
formerly deplored the existence of African bondage, wheeled 
about in its defense. Clay (1835) denounced the Abolitionists, 
and declared that " two hundred years of legislation have sanc- 
tioned and sanctified negro slaves as property." Calhoun had 
once said that slavery was a scaffolding which must come down. 
He now (1837) denied that it was an evil, and declared that it 
was economically, politically, and morally " a good — a positive 
good." " We love and cherish the Union," said he, " but we will 
not, cannot, permit it [slavery] to be destroyed. . . . Should it 
cost every drop of blood and every cent of property, we must 
defend ourselves." 

John Quincy Adams had written several years before (1833), 
" Slavery is, in all probability, the wedge which will ultimately 
split up this Union." At the North the men of the Garrison 
school were laboring to secure a separation ; at the South there 
were politicians w^ho eagerly welcomed the Abolition agitation. 
They found in it an effective means of pushing their own selfish 
schemes at the risk of destroying the nation. 

Madison feared that these men would spur the South to enter 
upon a course, of which the first step would be " nullification, the 
next secession, and the last a farewell separation." It was, as 
Reward later declared, the beginning of an " irrepressible conflict 



344 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1832 

between opposing and enduring forces." On the part of the North, 
Emerson, who was no fanatic, did not hesitate to say, " Slavery 
is not an institution, but a destitution " ; on the part of the 
South, Governor McDuffie of South CaroHna boldly proclaimed 
slavery to be '' the corner stone of our Republican edifice." ^ 

But yet there were great numbers who refused to discuss the 
question of slavery in any form. They feared the agitation might 
be disastrous to the country. They were ready to sacrifice the 
negro for the sake of maintaining political peace and business 
prosperity. 

355. The new tariff (1832); South Carolina nullifies it. While 
this bitter dispute respecting slavery was going on, the discon- 
tent of South Carolina over the protective tariff of 1828 (§ 343) 
was increasing.^ In his annual message of 183 1 the President 
recommended Congress to reduce the rate of duties. One rea- 
son which he urged for adopting this policy was that the govern- 
ment would soon have an annual surplus of about $15,000,000. 
Clay would not 'listen to any change in his favorite "American 
system " ^ (§§ 314, 333), and vowed that he would defend it if he 
had to defy the President, the South, and the Evil One. Con- 
gress, however, enacted a new tariff (1832), which practically 
put back duties to where they had stood in 1824 (§333). At 
the same time the duties on woolens were actually raised, and the 
principle of protection was clearly insisted upon.* Calhoun urged 
South Carolina to refuse to obey the law. He declared that peace- 
able resistance was entirely '' consistent with the federal relations 
of the state." He argued that such resistance was essentially 
different from secession, and that instead of destroying the Union 
it would help to preserve it. He gloried in his advocacy of this 
measure, and said, " If you should ask me the word that I should 
wish engraven on my tombstone, it is 'nullification.' " 



1 See Hart's American History Leaflets, No. 10. 

2 See Dewey's Financial History of tlie United States, ch. viii. 

3 See Johnston's American Orations, IV, 202. 

4 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 183. 



1832] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 345 

The crisis soon came. South Carolina held a state convention 
(1832) and adopted an ordinance of nullification (§273).^ It 
declared (i) the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 "null, void, and no 
law, nor binding upon this state, its officers, or citizens"; (2) it 
refused to pay any duties enjoined by those tariffs after February 
I, 1833; (3) it declared that, should the United States attempt 
to compel payment, " the people of this state will forthwith 
proceed to organize a separate government." The convention 
deduced the right to secede from the nature of the Constitution, 
which they asserted was a compact made between sovereign 
states (§ 247) ; what they had freely made they claimed the 
power to freely break. This action was strongly resisted by a 
Union Convention of South Carolinians, but most of the influen- 
tial men in the state were on the side of nullification. 

Many years before, Jackson had declared that he would " die 
in the last ditch " before he would countenance disunion. In 
1 83 1 he had indirectly encouraged nullification by the course he 
had taken respecting Georgia in its attitude toward the United 
States Supreme Court (§ 340). But he now (1832) issued a proc- 
lamation ^ in which he appealed to the fellow-citizens of his 
'' native state " as a father might appeal to his children. But he 
took a decided stand. " The Constitution of the United States," 
said he, "forms 2. government^ not a league." "To say that any 
state may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the 
United States are not a nation." He added : " The laws of the 
United States must be executed . . . disunion by armed force 
is treason^ ^ Jackson's friends hailed him as " the second savior 
of his country." Congress passed a " Force Act " * to enable 
the President to compel obedience to the tariff, and Jackson 
sent a sloop of war to Charleston and ordered General Scott to 
collect the customs, if necessary, by miHtary force. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 53. 

2 Ibid., No. 55. 

3 See Richardson's Messages of the Presidents, II, 640-656. 

4 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 56 ; Johnston's American Orations, I, 
303- 



346 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1830- 

• Meanwhile Clay, alarmed at the outlook, came forward as a 
peacemaker (§ 324). He introduced a Compromise Tariff ^ which 
provided for a gradual reduction of duties. He now said, " I 
wish to see the tariff separated from poHtics." Calhoun, who had 
resigned the 'vice presidency and had again entered the Senate, 
voted for Clay's bill. In anticipation of the success of this 
measure. South Carolina decided not to resist payment of duties 
under the existing tariff. The Compromise Tariff was enacted 
(1833), and South Carolina at once repealed her ordinance of 
nulhfication. Jackson wrote, "Nullification is dead"; but he 
added : " The tariff . . . was a mere pretext . . . disunion and a 
Southern Confederacy [was] the real object. The next pretext 
will be the negro or the slavery agitation." 

356. Openingof the first American railway (1830). The steam- 
boat (§ 286) had revolutionized travel and transportation on the 
inland waters of the United States, and had greatly helped forward 
emigration to the West. Now a far more remarkable revolution 
was at hand. Stephenson, the English inventor, had put the first 
really successful locomotive on the tracks of the first railway 
opened in Great Britain, or in the world. The " steam wagon " 
promised to supersede the mail coach and the carrier's cart. 

Late in the summer of 1830 fourteen miles of the Baltimore 
and Ohio Railway were opened. It was the first road of the kind 
in America which was constructed for the express purpose of 
carrying passengers and merchandise. Peter Cooper of New 
York built a little engine called the " Tom Thumb," which made 
its trial trip from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills. The first Amer- 
ican locomotive was an improvement on Stephenson's " Rocket," 
since, by reason of its movable truck, it could go safely around 
sharp curves. At that time, when American companies had not 
capital to tunnel hills, but had to go round them, this improve- 
ment was of much practical importance. It settled the question 
in favor of steam over horse power. Before the close of that year 
(1830) ground had been broken for the South Carohna Railway 
J 3ee Dewey's Financial mstory of the Unitea States, 185, 




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MssaMTS ma. §g ^mm mi^ m mm. mwmm. 

Passengers wOl procure tickets at the offices at Albany, Bufllilo or Rochester 
throtifflu to bo entitled to seats at the rednced rates. 

Fare will be roteived at each of the above places to any other plaees 
named on the route. 



From an Old Time-table (furnished by the,'"A B C Pathfinder Railway Guide"). 

By permission of the Superintendent of the " A . B. C. Pathfinder Railway Guide." 



The above Time-table shows that the rate of travel by express trains from Albany to 
Buffalo in 1843 was less than thirteen miles an hour. 

The total length of railway operated in the United States in 1843 was but a little over 
4000 miles. 

Up to 1850 no line of railway had been built as far west as the Mississippi River. 

The 180,000 miles of railway now in operation in the United States employ an army of 
about 600,000 men ; financially they constitute " the largest single interest in the country." 



1830-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 347 

from Charleston to Augusta, a distance of 135 miles. It was 
opened for traffic three years later. It was the longest continu- 
ous line of railway in the world, and was the first to carry the 
United States mails. 

A part of the New York Central Railway was opened in 
1 83 1, and was followed by similar roads in Pennsylvania and 
Massachusetts. But the progress of these undertakings was slow. 
The first puff of the locomotive was not heard in Ohio or on the 
prairies of Illinois until 1838; and in 1840 the total number of 
miles of railway in the United States was less than three thou- 
sand. The Mississippi was not crossed until after 1850, hence it 
was not until after that date that railways began to have their 
influence on the far West. 

The railway was destined to solve the problem of the unity of 
the states, so far as that could be accomplished by material means 
(§§ 278, 286). It clamped the Republic together with iron bands, 
and in time made every part quickly and cheaply accessible to 
every other. From an economic point of view it was no less 
important. It ultimately reduced the expense of travel to one fifth 
that by stagecoach, and it cut down the cost of transportation by 
wagons from an average of twenty cents a ton per mile to less than 
one cent. The freight traffic of the United States, if moved by 
horses, would cost, it is estimated, more in a single year than all 
the railways of the country have required for their construction. 

Finally, the railway opened new lands to the emigrant and 
new markets for his produce. It developed the West as nothing 
else could have done. It built up thriving inland cities and 
towns at points inaccessible by water ; and it greatly facilitated 
the territorial division of labor. This made it possible for each 
section of the country to devote its energies to the industry it 
found most profitable, — coal, cotton, cattle, wheat, mining for 
metals, or manufacturing. In 1904 the total length of railways 
in the United States was more than 200,000 miles, and the total 
capital invested exceeded $12,000,000,000; financially speaking 
they constitute the largest single interest in the United States. 



348 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1830- 

357. Rise of modern American literature; cheap newspapers; 
the steam press. The two pioneers of American prose and poetry, 
Irving and Bryant, had made themselves a name before Jackson 
entered office. Bryant's " Thanatopsis," published (181 6) in the 
North American Review, then in the second year of its existence, 
so delighted Wordsworth that he learned it by heart. Sir Walter 
Scott was equally pleased with the originaUty and humor of 
Irving's writings, and offered him a handsome salary to undertake 
the editorship of a magazine in Edinburgh. 

Seventeen years later (1833), the town of Peterboro, New Hamp- 
shire, established the first free public library in America, supported 
by public funds. Fifteen years from that date Massachusetts laid 
a tax (1848), to estabhsh a free public library in Boston. This is 
beUeved to' have been the beginning of such legislation in any part 
of the world. To-day there are several thousand such libraries in 
the United States, and the number is steadily increasing. 

Cooper, the first American novelist who found readers abroad, 
began to bring out his stories a little later, while Simms was work- 
ing in like manner at the South. Webster published the first 
edition of his American dictionary (1828) just before Jackson's 
election ; and Whittier began to write his New England ballads 
shortly after Jackson entered office. He was followed by Long- 
fellow, Bancroft, Holmes, Poe, Hawthorne, and Prescott ; Lowell 
was soon to make his appearance in the same field. The last 
year of Jackson's second administration (1837) was rendered 
memorable in literature by Emerson's Phi Beta Kappa address 
on the "American Scholar." Holmes hailed it as our ''intel- 
lectual Declaration of Independence." In the domain of Amer- 
ican jurisprudence and constitutional law the works of Chancellor 
Kent and Chief Justice Story stood preeminent. 

A little earlier (1833), the New York Sun, the first perma- 
nent cheap daily paper, appeared. The price was one cent. 
This meant that for the first time since the invention of printing 
the poorest laborer could afford to carry home the news of the 
world in his pocket. 



1830-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 349 

Later (1847), Hoe's steam-cylinder press made cheap news- 
papers a success by reducing the cost of publication and by ren- 
dering it possible to issue enormous editions in a very short space 
of time. A roll of paper five miles in length can now be printed 
on both sides in a little more than thirty-two minutes. 

With the opening of the Civil War (1861) a great change 
began to show itself in the character of many of the daily papers. 
From that time we may date the exaggerated, sensational, and 
reckless type of journalism which has since developed into a power 
for evil that is a positive menace to civilization. 

358. The Black Hawk War; growth of the West. In the sum- 
mer of 1832 an Indian insurrection, led by Black Hawk, broke 
out in Illinois and extended to parts of the territory now com- 
prised in Wisconsin and Iowa. The government troops gained 
an easy victory, and the Indians ceded large tracts of land to 
secure peace. These cessions opened new fields for settlement 
in the rapidly growing West. 

Cincinnati now had a population of more than 30,000, and 
Buffalo and Detroit gave promise of becoming important cities. 
Chicago was a pushing httle trading village gathered under the 
protecting guns of Fort Dearborn (§ 278). St. Louis was a 
frontier settlement which carried on a large traffic with the Mis- 
souri Indians ; near the mouth of the Mississippi, New Orleans 
was making ready to contest the commercial supremacy of the 
great Atlantic ports. 

359. Beginning of the war against the United States Bank;^ 
Jackson's message. When Jackson entered office the Bank of the 
United States (§ 314) seemed almost as solidly established as 
the government itself. It had a capital of about ^35,000,000; 
its assets were fully equal to its liabiHties ; it held more than 
^13,000,000 of deposits; and it issued notes to the amount of 
over $27,000,000, which were considered as good as gold not 
only throughout the United States but in Europe. The head- 
quarters of the Bank were at Philadelphia, under the management 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, ch. ix. 



350 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1829-1830 

of Nicholas Biddle, president of the institution, and it had twenty- 
five branches in different states. 

But some months after Jackson's inauguration two of his most 
zealous supporters, both New Hampshire men, made a complaint 
against the Bank. They stated that the Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, branch was mismanaged. Jeremiah Mason, the head of that 
branch, was an opponent of the administration ; he was accused 
of political favoritism in his dealings with applicants at the Bank, 
and Secretary Ingham, of the United States Treasury, wrote 
Nicholas Biddle, telling him of these complaints. Biddle, after 
investigating the matter, rephed that the charges were groundless. 
He declared that the Bank was accountable to Congress, but to 
Congress only. " The board of directors," said he, "acknowledge 
not the slightest responsibility of any description whatsoever to the 
Secretary of the Treasury touching the political opinions and con- 
duct of their officers." This sharp retort provoked retaliation. 

We have seen (§ 319) that the action of the Bank in 18 19 
had stirred up powerful enemies against it. Its charter, however, 
would not expire until 1836, or three years after the term for 
which Jackson had been elected. But in his first annual message 
(1829) the President said,^ "Both the constitutionaHty and the 
expediency of the law creating this Bank are well questioned by a 
large portion of our fellow-citizens" (§ 255). He next charged 
the Bank with having " failed in the great end of estabhshing a 
uniform and sound currency." He suggested that w^hen the char- 
ter should expire it might be thought expedient to establish a new 
National Bank " founded upon the credit of the government." 

360. Congressional reports on the Bank. A Congressional com- 
mittee reported (1830) that the Supreme Court of the United 
States had recognized the constitutionaHty of the Bank (§319), 
and that it had proved itself a useful institution. Concerning the 
currency of the Bank, the committee reported that " no country 
in the world has a circulating medium of greater uniformity than 
the United States." 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 46. 



1S.W-1832] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 351 

Jackson in his next two annual messages (1830, 183 1) again 
attacked the Bank.^ Senator Benton strongly supported the 
President. Benton's hatred of bank notes and love of gold cur- 
rency had got for him the title of " Old Bullion." He now intro- 
duced a resolution against rechartering the Bank. The following 
year (1832) a new Congressional committee examined the condi- 
tion of the institution. The majority reported against its methods 
of transacting business ; the minority defended it. John Quincy 
Adams, who was one of the committee, made an independent 
report. He criticised some of the Bank's financial methods, but 
declared that, all things considered, it had managed its affairs 
'' with as near an approach to perfect wisdom as the imperfection 
of human nature permitted." 

361. Jackson vetoes the bill to recharter the Bank. In the sum- 
mer of 1832 Congress passed a bill to recharter the Bank. The 
President promptly vetoed it^ on the ground that some of the 
powers of the institution were '' unauthorized by the Constitution, 
subversive of the rights of the states, and dangerous to the liber- 
ties of the people." He furthermore denounced the Bank as a 
"monopoly" whose stock was held by a few hundred rich men 
here and a number of capitalists abroad. 

The existence of such a colossal money power, with its enor- 
mous poHtical influence, " might," he said, " make us tremble for 
the purity of our elections in peace and for the independence of 
our country in war." If we must have such a Bank, said he, " it 
should hep/re/v American^ With respect to the decision of the 
Supreme Court recognizing the Bank as constitutional (§ 360), 
Jackson said, " The opinion of the judges has no more authority 
over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges ; 
and on that point the President is independent of both." 

Webster declared that if the veto stood, " the Constitution had 
received its deathblow." Clay said that if the Bank was com- 
pelled to call in its loans and wind up its business, the result 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 50, 51. 

2 Ibid., No. 52 ; Mason's Veto Power, 32. 



352 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1832-1833 

would be " widespread ruin." On the other hand, Benton said, 
" If the Bank gains the day, there is an end of the Republic "; 
in that case, he added, '' the president of the Bank and the 
President of the United States will elect each other." The veto 
triumphed and Jackson's supporters were jubilant. They declared 
that, now that " Nick Biddle's bloated corporation " had 'received 
its finishing stroke, the people would get plenty of Benton's 
"mint drops" and Jackson's *' yellow boys" in place of "Old 
Nick's money" and "Clay's rags." 

362. The presidential election. The issue at the election (1832) 
was the question whether the Bank should or should not be 
rechartered. Jackson denounced the institution as a dangerous 
poUtical machine which was ready to use its power to set up or 
cast down Presidents. Biddle and the Clay party retorted that 
Jackson had determined to make himself " lord and master of 
the United States," and that the safety of the country demanded 
his defeat at the polls. 

The candidates, of whom Clay and Jackson were the chief, 
were all nominated (for the first time) by national conventions 
(§335)? the system ever since in force. Clay was chosen by the 
National Republicans (§ 341), who adopted the first political 
platform issued by such a convention.^ It declared that "an 
adequate protection to American industry is indispensable to the 
prosperity of the country." It advocated a uniform system of 
" internal improvements " (§ 337); declared that " the existence 
of the nation" depended upon the preservation of the authority 
and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States 
(§ 361), and denounced the " spoils system " (§ 349) as " corrupt- 
ing to the morals, and dangerous to the liberties of this country." 
Jackson, who was the choice of the Democrats (§ 341), was 
elected, with Martin Van Buren as Vice President. The electoral 
vote stood 219 to 49, and the popular vote, 687,502 to 530,189. 

363. The President withdraws the deposits. Jackson began his 
second administration (1833) fully resolved to destroy the power 

1 See Stanwood's The Presidency, ch. xiii; McKee's Conventions, 27-33, 



1833-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 353 

of the United States Bank. He believed that it had used its 
funds to prevent his election, that it was " financially rotten," 
and that the government deposits in it were no longer safe. The 
House voted that the deposits were safe, but the President 
replied, " The Bank is broke, and Biddle knows it." He then 
proceeded (1833) ''on his own responsibihty" to remove the 
government money,^ amounting to nearly ^10,000,000. It was 
gradually withdrawn in the regular course of business to meet the 
expenses of the government. At the same time Jackson ordered 
all deposits of public money to be made henceforth in about fifty 
state banks, which the opposition dubbed *' pet banks." ^ The 
Senate voted that the President had violated the Constitution ; 
but shortly before Jackson left office Senator Benton (§ 360) suc- 
ceeded in getting the record of the vote expunged.'^ 

The removal of the deposits, or rather the withholding of future 
deposits, compelled the Bank of the United States to contract its 
loans. This caused "tight money"; many failures resulted, and 
" distress delegations " implored the President for relief. The 
great New York fire (1835) made the situation worse by destroying 
property worth ^20,000,000. 

364. Increase of state banks ; an epidemic of speculation ; the 
"specie circular"; distribution of the *' surplus." State banks 
now began to increase at a rapid rate. Many of these institutions 
were simply ''wild-cat banks" (§319), w^hich had little or no 
capital, and issued floods of worthless paper. Plenty of cheap 
money stimulated speculation. In the course of two years enor- 
mous tracts of public lands were purchased ; there were " booms " 
in cotton, in timber, in real estate in eastern and southern cities, 
and in projected western towns. 

Between 1834 and 1836 the government land sales rose from 
less than ^5,000,000 to nearly ^25,000,000. Everybody seemed 
to be getting rich at railway speed. In New York City the 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 56-57. 

2 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 203, 209. 3 See Johnston's 
American Orations, I, 320; Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 64, 68. 



354 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1833-1836 

assessed valuation rose in two years from $104,000,000 to 
i^ 2 5 3, 000, 000, while in Mobile the craze for speculation was so 
furious that property estimated in 1831 to be worth under 
$1,300,000 was six years later rated at over $27,000,000. 

The President became alarmed at these heavy sales of govern- 
ment land for doubtful paper. After giving the banks ample 
time to make preparations, he issued (1836) his famous "specie 
circular," which required purchasers to make their payments in 
gold and silver. Congress passed a bill to annul the circular, but 
the President vetoed the bill just before he left office. Specu- 
lators were aghast at the prospect. The financial sky grew black 
with the gathering storm. The banks held less than $38,000,000 
in specie, against an issue of $525,000,000 in notes. Very few 
of them could redeem their bills in coin. The result was suspen- 
sion of payment and great distress. There were bread riots in 
New York and threats of mob violence on a wide scale ; but the 
tempest did not strike the country in its full violence until after 
Jackson had retired from office (§§ 368-370). 

But the United States had not only paid off every dollar of the 
public debt but had actually accumulated a large surplus in the 
Treasury. At the recommendation of the President, Congress 
passed an act (1836) ordering that the surplus which should be 
on hand at the beginning of 1837 should be distributed among the 
states.^ It was styled a "deposit," but it was practically a gift. 
Accordingly the government paid out over $28,000,000 (January 
to July, 1837), and then stopped because its funds were exhausted. 
Some states divided their share of the money among the whole 
population, each person getting a few shillings ; others used the 
money to begin great systems of roads, canals, and similar public 
improvements. These works were seldom carried to completion, 
and generally ended by piling up a heavy state debt. A few 
states still hold and use the income of the money. 

365. " Pocket vetoes " ; antislavery petitions ; the *'gag rule." 
During this period the President refused to sign the Maysville, 

i See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 219. 



1836-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 355 

Kentucky, Turnpike Bill, with several others, for " internal im- 
provements " (§337). He believed that these measures were 
unconstitutional because they were local, and not, in any true 
sense, national improvements, and that they tended to produce 
political corruption. Some of these bills were sent to him within 
ten days of the adjournment of Congress; the Constitution 
(Appendix, page ix, § 7) gave him the right to retain them until 
the session closed, and so defeat them. He did retain them, and 
thus, by what was called a ''pocket veto," — first used by Madi- 
son, — he effectually checked this kind of legislation for the time. 

Later, many persons at the North petitioned Congress to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia. On motion of C. C. Pinckney, 
the House (1836) passed the first "gag rule," which laid petitions 
on the subject of slavery on the table, thus preventing discus- 
sion. A second and more stringent measure was passed four 
years later. John Quincy Adams vehemently protested (§ 373), 
declaring that these rules violated the spirit of the first amendment 
of the Constitution (Appendix, page xvi). 

366. Important inventions ; the presidential election ; new states. 
Shortly after Jackson's administration began, McCormick's patent 
reaper and mower (1834) put a new power in the hands of the 
agriculturist and greatly stimulated the rapid development of the 
West. Colt's revolver followed, thus introducing (1835) a most 
effective military weapon, which made itself felt in the Seminole 
and the Mexican wars. Gas (1825) had been in use for some 
years, and the friction match (1829) now generally superseded 
the bungling flint and steel (§ 182). 

Ericsson's screw propeller (1836) was destined to have an 
immense influence on ocean navigation, and Nasmyth's steam 
hammer (1838) gave a decided impetus to the iron mills of both 
England and America. Goodyear was experimenting on vulcan- 
ized rubber and was soon (1839) to take out his patent leading 
to the manufacture of waterproof clothing. Two years later 
(1841), the first steam fire engine made its appearance in New 
York ; but it did not come into use until long afterward. 



356 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [183G-1837 

By 1835 the National Republicans (§§341, 362), under the 
leadership of Clay, had taken the name of Whigs. They were 
determined to put an end to the " reign of King Andrew." The 
Democrats were for a time divided into two factions, — the reg- 
ular party and the " Locofocos," or '' Reform Democrats." At 
the presidential election (1836) the two chief candidates were 
Martin Van Buren (who had been Secretary of State under Jack- 
son), and General Harrison (§ 297) ; the former was nominated 
by the Democrats, the latter by the Whigs. Jackson threw the 
weight of his powerful influence for Van Buren, and he (with 
Richard M. Johnson, Vice President) was elected. The electoral 
vote stood 170 to 73 (beside 51 scattering votes), and the popular 
vote stood 761,549 to a total (for all Whig candidates) of 736,656. 

The admission of the two new states of Arkansas (1836) and 
Michigan (early in 1837) raised the whole number to twenty-six. 

367. Summary. The chief political events of Jackson's admin- 
istration were : (i) the' establishment of rotation in office and the 
"spoils system" on a national scale; (2) the negotiation of 
treaties securing unrestricted direct trade with the West Indies, and 
the payment of the second set of French spoliation claims ; (3) the 
Webster and Hayne debate on the Constitution ; (4) the rise of the 
Abolitionists; (5) the nullification movement in South Carolina; 
(6) the overthrow of the Bank of the United States ; (7) the issue 
of the " specie circular "; (8) the distribution of the " surplus." 

This period was memorable, too, for the rise of the Whigs ; for 
the opening of the first American railway ; for the introduction of 
a number of important inventions ; for the development of Amer- 
ican Hterature and the publication of the first cheap newspaper. 

Martin Van Buren (Democrat), One Term (1837-1841) 

368. Van Buren 's inaugural and slavery ; financial crash and 
panic (1837). Van Buren came in as the intimate personal friend 
and the poHtical successor of Jackson. All preceding Presidents 
had carefully avoided the exciting subject of slavery in their 



1837] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 357 

inaugurals, but Van Buren (§ 366) spoke directly on that topic. 
He said : *' I must go into the presidential chair the inflexible and 
uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Con- 
gress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia (§ 365) 
against the wishes of the slaveholding states ; and also with a 
determination to resist the sli ghtest int erferenc e with it in the 
states where it exists." 

John Quincy Adams, the first great antislavery leader in Con- 
gress, had just declared that though he considered it his duty to 
continue to present petitions " for the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia," yet he would not give them his support. 
More than a score of years later (i860), the Republican party and 
Charles Sumner exphcitly denied that Congress had the right "to 
interfere with slavery in any state." President Lincoln in his 
inaugural (1861) took the same position. 

But a more pressing question than that of slavery was now 
demanding solution. In his farewell address President Jackson 
said, " I leave this great people prosperous and happy." In his 
inaugural Van Buren said, ''We present an aggregate of human 
prosperity surely not elsewhere to be found." Yet at the very 
moment when he uttered these confident words the country was 
on the verge of the severest financial panic it had ever experi- 
enced.^ Overtrading and reckless land speculation (§ 364) had 
been pushed higher and higher for a number of years. Both were 
in large degree the result of the stimulus given to western settle- 
ment by the opening of the Erie Canal (§ 338) and by steamboat 
navigation (§ 286). These money-making schemes now toppled 
over with a crash. 

369. Business failures; application to the government for relief. 
In the spring of 1837 a large cotton firm failed in New Orleans; 
a New York house followed, and in ten days the failures in that 
city amounted to $27,000,000. Property of all kinds fell rapidly 
in value, and tracts of land which had been purchased at fabulous 
prices could not be sold for enough to pay the taxes. Strange to 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, ch. x. 



358 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1837 

say, the country was actually in want of food. Many farmers had 
neglected cultivating their fields in the hope of making money 
by speculation. A poor harvest diminished the yield of wheat 
and corn still further, and the American people, with millions 
of acres of fertile soil, found themselves compelled to import 
breadstuffs from Europe. All the necessaries of life rose in 
price, and there was great distress among the poor in New York 
and other cities. 

A committee of prominent merchants made a piteous appeal to 
the President for help. They stated that the losses by shrinkage 
of real-estate values and local stocks in New York City alone 
exceeded ^60,000,000. Within eight weeks, said they, two hun- 
dred and fifty large business houses have failed, and twenty thou- 
sand laboring men are parading the streets, destitute of food, 
and unable to find work. The committee believed, with Daniel 
Webster, that the " specie circular" (§ 364) was one of the chief 
causes of " tight money " and of the general distress. 

Van Buren expressed his sympathy, but declined to make any 
change in this respect. He was convinced that the " specie cir- 
cular " was not the real cause of the panic, but was simply the pin 
which had pricked the bubble of speculation. He said, in sub- 
stance, that instead of praying to the government for aid, men 
must put their shoulders to the wheel, get the load out of the 
slough, and so find that " Heaven helps those " — and those only 
— ''who help themselves." 

370. Bank failures; the government suspends specie payment; 
repudiation ; causes of the panic. One of the deposit or " pet " 
banks (§ 363) in New York failed, and shortly afterward all the 
other banks in the city suspended payment. Those elsewhere 
speedily followed their example.-^ Coin now disappeared from 
circulation, and the country was soon flooded with all kinds of 
** shinplaster " currency. 

The suspension of the deposit banks compelled the federal 
government to give up making payments in gold and silver. A 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 229. 



1837-1838] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 359 

number of states, unable to raise money by taxation, repudiated 
the interest on their debts, and in some cases refused to pay the 
debts themselves. Later, however, these states resumed pay- 
ment, either partially or wholly ; but for a long time American 
credit remained at a very low point indeed. John Quincy Adams 
believed that the distribution of the treasury surplus of ^2 8,000- 
000 (§ 364) was the chief cause of the financial distress. He said, 
" We present, at the present moment, a most astonishing and 
portentous spectacle to the world — without a dollar of national 
debt we are in the midst of national bankruptcy." 

Van Buren called a special session of Congress in the autumn 
of 1837 to consider what action should be taken respecting the 
deposit of the government funds. He attributed the panic to 
four causes: (i) the enormous multiplication of banks (§ 364); 
(2) the borrowing of more than ^30,000,000 of foreign money by 
individual states ; (3) reckless speculation in wild lands (§ 364) ; 
(4) the expenditure of vast sums in " ruinously improvident " 
systems of " internal improvements " (§ 364). 

By the spring of 1838 the sharpest period of the panic had 
passed, but the next year there was a partial relapse in the South, 
owing to the sudden fall in the price of cotton from sixteen cents 
to five cents per pound. 

371. Van Buren proposes the independent treasury system; 
socialistic experiments. The President recommended Congress to 
abolish the system of depositing the government money in state 
banks and to establish an independent treasury system.^ He 
argued that if the government deposited its revenues in its own 
vaults, the money would not only be absolutely safe, but it could 
not be used for speculation or for pohtical purposes. A majority 
in Congress nicknamed the President's recommendation "The 
Divorce Bill," and refused to consider it; but later (1840) they 
adopted it. The act establishing the independent treasury system 
was, however, very soon repealed (i84i),but was reenacted some 
years later (1846) as it stands to-day (§ 404). 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 235. 



36o THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1837-1838 

The hard winter of 1 837-1 838 bore fruit, however, in other 
ways. Horace Greeley wrote a series of articles on " What shall 
be done for the Laborer? " This led to the suggestion of the estab- 
lishment of communal farms, to be cultivated by the cooperation of 
several hundred families. The Shakers and the Rappites were suc- 
cessful examples of such communities. They, however, had been 
estabUshed on a religious basis, while Greeley and other thinkers 
proposed to make their experiments industrial and educational. 

In the course of a few years several such communities were 
started. One of the most noted of these was that at "■ Brook 
Farm," near Boston. It was begun by an exceptionally intelli- 
gent and earnest band of men and women. They believed that 
by honest, well-directed, harmonious labor they could succeed in 
showing the world the advantages of cooperative industry joined 
to " plain living and high thinking." Like most of these w^ell- 
meant projects, "Brook Farm" attracted its full proportion of 
"dreamers and schemers," and the pressure of untoward circum- 
stances soon put an end to what Emerson called an attempt to 
organize " a perpetual picnic." Some of the purely industrial 
communities founded about the same time still flourish. 

372 . The Mormons found Nauvoo ; Millerism and Spiritualism. 
During the second half of Van Buren's administration the Mor- 
mons, or " Latter Day Saints," attracted much attention in the 
West.^ The founder of the organization was Joseph Smith, a 
native of Vermont, \vho had in early life removed to western 
New York. He declared that an angel appeared to him (1827) 
and directed him where to dig up a remarkable volume called the 
" Book of Mormon." Smith and his followers regarded this book 
as a special divine revelation made to the people of America. 
They believed that its authority was equal to that of the Bible, 
and that it was a necessary supplement to the Christian gospels. 
Smith proclaimed himself the "Prophet" of the new religion. 
He made a number of new converts and planted missions in 
Ohio and Missouri. 

1 See H. H. Bancroft's Utah, 71-690; Linn's History of the Mormons. 



1840-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 361 

Subsequently the " Latter Day Saints " were driven out of these 
states ; they then settled in Illinois. There they obtained an 
unusually liberal charter, and founded (1840) the ''sacred city" 
of Nauvoo on a bend of the Mississippi River. The population of 
Nauvoo eventually reached about fifteen thousand. This made 
it the largest city in the state. 

Smith was the supreme head of the church and of the civil and 
military power of this flourishing community, which was noted for 
its industry, temperance, and thrift. As head of the Mormon 
corporation he could marshal an army of trained militia some four 
thousand strong, and another and still larger army of voters who 
cast a solid ballot. Governor Ford said that without their aid 
no one could hope to get office. Political opponents accused 
them of plotting to obtain control of the state. They asserted 
that when the followers of Smith had acquired sufficient strength, 
they would drive the "Gentile " inhabitants out of Illinois as the 
" Children of Israel " drove the heathen out of Canaan. 

The Mormon leader professed to make the example of the 
Hebrew patriarchs his guide in many things. He now (1843) 
declared that he had received a new revelation from heaven 
respecting marriage. This revelation recommended the establish- 
ment of polygamy, though the formal, public declaration of the 
doctrine was not made until 1852. Shortly after this several of the 
" Saints," who had either seceded from the Mormon body or had 
been expelled from it, began the publication of a paper in Nauvoo 
in which they boldly accused the "Prophet" of leading a profligate 
life. The Mormon authorities at once broke up the paper, and 
the publishers fled to Carthage. Smith at first defied the officers 
of the law sent to arrest him, but finally gave himself up and was 
carried to Carthage and imprisoned. The report got about that 
Governor Ford intended to discharge him without a trial ; a mob 
collected, attacked the jail, and shot the " Prophet" (1844). 

After Smith's death Brigham Young, one of the " Twelve Apos- 
tles " of the " Latter Day Saints," became their leader. The feeling 
in Illinois continued to grow more and more bitter against the 



362 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1840- 

Mormons, who then numbered about twenty thousand. Their 
peculiar religious teachings and their political power roused the 
fear and hatred of the " Gentiles." They were forced (1846) to 
abandon Nauvoo. Under the leadership of Brigham Young they 
crossed the Rocky Mountains, then the western boundary of the 
United States, south of the '' Oregon Country," and settled (1847) 
on Mexican soil in what is now Utah. 

There, in the midst of an alkali desert w^here rain rarely fell, 
and in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake, — the American Dead 
Sea, — they began to erect their new Zion. The Mormons dug 
trenches which brought an ample supply of water from the moun- 
tains. In this way, starting with no capital but their hands, they 
transformed the desolate wilderness into a garden and made the 
desert " rejoice and blossom as the rose." Later, many non- 
Mormons were attracted to Utah. 

About the time that Mormonism was exerting its influence in 
Illinois, William Miller made an address in New York state, 
declaring (1843) that the end of the world w^as at hand. He 
readily found listeners to his teachings, and some enthusiastic 
followers stopped doing business, gave away their property, and 
prepared their ascension robes. In New York state a few years 
later (1848), certain mysterious rappings, known as the "Roch- 
ester knockings," began to attract attention in that city. They 
were produced through the a-gency or " mediumship " of the Fox 
sisters. These rappings gave rise to the widespread movement 
known as modern Spiritualism. 

373. Slavery agitation in Congress; the second Seminole War ; 
the "Caroline" affair. Notwithstanding the fact that the "gag 
rule " prevailed in Congress (§ 365), there was intense excitement 
in that body over s-lavery. Lovejoy, the editor of an antislavery 
paper in Alton, Illinois, was shot in a riot (1837) while defending 
his printing office. His death gave fresh impetus to the aboHtion 
movement in New England, and added Wendell Phillips ^ to the 
Garrisonian ranks (§ 353). 

1 See Johnston's American Orations, II, 102. 



1837-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 363 

Calhoun (1837) offered a series of six resolutions in the United 
States Senate^ on the subject of the relations of the federal 
government to slavery. In the fifth resolution he declared that 
any " intermeddhng " with slavery by the states or by Congress in 
the District of Columbia, or in the territories, under the pretext 
that " it is immoral or sinful," would be a "direct and dangerous 
attack" on southern institutions. Clay offered two amendments : 
the first slightly changed the wording of Calhoun's resolution in 
regard to the interference with slavery in the District of Columbia ; 
the second declared that the people of any territory, when it should 
be admitted as a state, should decide the question " exclusively 
for themselves " whether they would or would not have slavery. 
This was the first " popular sovereignty " measure on record. 

The resolutions were then adopted by a large majority. In 
the House, John Quincy Adams continued to oifer (§ 365) peti- 
tions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, for 
the dissolution of the Union, and for various other objects. In a 
single day he presented several hundred such papers. In one 
instance he offered a petition which professed to come from a 
number of slaves. The excitement became almost a riot ; the 
House echoed with cries of " Order ! order ! " and members 
crowded around Mr. Adams shouting, " Expel him ! expel him ! " 
After the tumult had somewhat subsided Mr. Adams dryly 
explained that in this case the slaves had petitioned against 
abolition, not for it. He continued to fight against the " gag 
rules " (§ 365) session after session, until finally after eight years 
of battle he succeeded in getting them rescinded (1844). Four 
years later, the indomitable old man died at his post saying, 
''This is the last of earth, I am content." 

The Seminole War which had begun (181 7) under Monroe 
(§ 317) broke out anew under Van Buren. Osceola, chief of the 
tribe, visited the American camp under promise of safety ; but 
he was thrown into prison and detained until his death (1838). 
This caused the outbreak. Colonel Zachary Taylor defeated the 

1 See Benton's Thirty Years' View, II, 135. 



364 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1837- 

[ndians in a decisive battle, but the war dragged on in the 
swamps of southern Florida for several years longer. At length, 
after having spent more than $20,000,000, or four times what 
we originally paid for the Florida territory, the Indians were 
compelled to move to the far West (1842). 

In 1837 a singular affair threatened to embroil the United 
States with England. In an insurrection in Toronto, Canada, 
a number of the rebels, who had fled to the United States, 
made use of the American steamboat Caroline to carry on their 
projects. A party of loyal Canadians crossed the Niagara River 
and burned the boat ; in the affray several persons were killed. 
This invasion caused intense excitement. While it was at its 
height a British subject, named McLeod, boasted that he was one 
of the attacking party. As he was then on the soil of New York, 
he was arrested and thrown into prison. The English govern- 
ment demanded his immediate release, and the London papers 
were filled with threats of war. We explained that under our 
Constitution the United States could not take the case out of the 
hands of the state of New York. T'he affair began to look very 
serious ; but luckily the trial of McLeod (1842) resulted in prov- 
ing that the braggart had nothing whatever to do with the destruc- 
tion of the Caroline. This settled an international question. 

374. Harnden's express; the daguerreotype ; ocean steamship 
lines established ; immigration. In 1839 W. F. Harnden of Mas- 
sachusetts began the business of carrying parcels in a handbag 
between Boston and New York City. In this humble way he 
founded the American express system, the most perfect of its 
kind in the world. It now extends to every town in the United 
States, employs a capital amounting to some scores of millions, 
and keeps an army of men busy day and night. 

In the autumn of the same year (1839) Samuel F. B. Morse, 
then in New York, took the first American photograph. Pie con- 
structed his apparatus by means of drawings which Daguerre, the 
inventor of the process, sent him from France, and succeeded in 
greatly reducing the time required for taking a picture. 



I8;w^] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 365 

We have seen that the first American ocean steamship crossed 
the Atlantic in 1819 (§ 319). Nearly twenty years elapsed before 
the experiment was again tried ; then two English steamers, the 
Sirii/s and the Grea^ ]Veste?'n, arrived in New York on the same 
day (1838). Two years later (1840), Samuel Cunard, the son of 
a Philadelphia merchant, established the first regular line between 
England and America, by sending the Britannia from Liverpool 
to Boston. The Cunard Company soon put on a second regular 
line to New York. 

By means of fast packets, and later by steamers, immense num- 
bers of immigrants soon began to pour into our ports (§ 339). 
The terrible famine in Ireland (i 845-1846), political troubles on 
the continent, and the discovery of gold in California (1848) 
greatly stimulated this influx of settlers. In ten years (1840- 
1850) the number of arrivals averaged nearly four thousand a 
week. The greatest number came from Ireland ; Germany 
ranked next, then England, and, last of all, France and the other 
countries of Europe. The total number of immigrants that 
arrived from the close of the Revolution to 1904 was upwards of 
22,000,000. A large proportion of the foreigners now coming 
are Italians, and Russian and Polish Jews. 

The immigrants of the earlier period were generally young men 
and women, full of vigor, who came here eager to grapple with 
the western wilderness. Their labor developed the resources of 
the country and enormously increased its wealth and prosperity. 
They rarely went South, where free labor was not wanted ; they 
generally voted the Democratic ticket, but had no interest in the 
extension of slavery ; they knew nothing of the doctrine of " state 
sovereignty," and gave their influence and their ballots to the 
cause of the Union. 

On the other hand, this immigration often indirectly encour- 
aged the municipal corruption which has disgraced so many of 
our city governments. Recently many important reforms have 
been effected in this respect, and the prospects indicate that the 
improvement may continue. 



366 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1840 

375. The presidential election of 1840; the " log-cabin and hard- 
cider campaign." The party which happens to be in power dur- 
ing a period of business and financial depression is sure to have 
much of the blame for " hard times " cast upon it. The Whigs 
believed Van Buren and his supporters were responsible for the 
panic of 1837 (§ 369), and nominated William Henry Harrison 
for President, with John Tyler of Virginia as Vice President ; the 
Democrats renominated Van Buren. They alone adopted a plat- 
form. It emphatically condemned any interference by Congress 
with slavery as dangerous to the stability of the Union. The 
AboHtionists, or Liberty party, now for the first time appeared 
in national politics, and nominated James G. Birney, one of their 
leading men, for the presidency. But the strict Garrisonian 
Abolitionists (§§ 353, 354) refused to act with the Liberty party; 
in fact, they would not cast a vote at the election. 

Harrison, the "old hero of Tippecanoe" (§ 297), was then 
living in a very humble way on a small farm in southern Ohio. 
An opposition journal ridiculed the idea of an attempt to make 
such a man the head of the nation. " Give him a log cabin 
and a barrel of hard cider," said the editor, "and he will stay 
content in Ohio." The Whigs found their rallying cry in these 
words, and at once set up a great shout for " the log-cabin can- 
didate." 

Then began the most exciting political campaign the country 
had ever seen.^ Clay, Webster, Everett, and Choate " took the 
stump " for " Harrison and Reform." The Whigs held gigantic 
mass meetings and marched in processions miles long. Every- 
where one saw log cabins, barrels of hard cider, and live coons ; 
the whole country rang with the rousing chorus of "Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too." Harrison spoke to " ten acres of people " at 
Dayton, Ohio, and pledged himself, if elected, " to abridge the 
power and influence of the national Executive." For the first 
time in forty years the Democrats were beaten, and Harrison and 
Tyler were elected. 

1 See McMaster in the Cambridge United States, 388. 



1840-1841] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 367 

Before the campaign Harrison had not clearly identified him- 
self with either the Whigs or the Democrats. Tyler had been 
a ".strict constructionist" (§256) and a Calhoun Democrat, 
strongly favoring "state rights," or "state sovereignty," It was 
beUeved, however, that he would throw his influence on the Whig 
side ; his nomination was made as a bid for southern votes. The 
electoral vote stood 234 to 60; the popular vote, 1,275,017 to 
1,128,702. 

376. Summary. Van Buren's administration began clouded by 
a disastrous panic which involved the whole country in ruinous 
loss. Through the President's earnest efforts Congress adopted 
the " independent treasury system," but it was not permanently 
established until after he left office. 

The Mormons made a strong settlement in lUinois, and when 
expelled from that state they emigrated to Salt Lake Valley in the 
Mexican territory, which is now the state of LTtah. 

The establishment of regular lines of ocean steamers and fast 
packets tended to encourage immigration and had an important 
influence on the West and on national pohtics. 

The second Seminole War and the Caroline affair were also 
important features of this period. 



William Henry Harrison (Whig), One Term 
(1841-1845) 

377. Harrison's death ; Tyler's succession. General Harrison 
(§ 375) was an old man when he entered office. The excitement 
of the campaign, Clay's dictatorial ways, and the persistent 
demands of crowds of greedy office seekers proved too much for 
his failing strength ; a month after his inauguration the President 
lay dead in the White House. The whole country was startled, 
for his death raised Tyler to the presidency. Such an event had 
never occurred before, and Tyler's pohtical principles (§ 375) 
were verv different from those which Harrison had held. 



368 THK STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I84i 

In their fancied security the people had jocosely dubbed the 
Vice President " His Superfluous Excellency." Congress hesi- 
tated what title to give Mr. Tyler, but he promptly informed them 
that he was now President of the United States " by the Consti- 
tution, by election, and by the hand of God." 

378. Tyler vetoes the '* Fiscal Bank" Bill. The first move 
made by the Whigs was to repeal the Independent Treasury Act 
(§ 371), and to attempt to pass a bill reviving the National Bank 
(§ 359) under the name of the "Fiscal Bank of the United 
States." The President vetoed the bill (1841) on the ground of 
unconstitutionality, since it granted the Bank the right to estab- 
lish branches in various states without asking their consent.-^ 
Congress then prepared a new bill, which the President vetoed 
(1841) on substantially the same grounds that he had the first. 

This second veto roused a storm of denunciation. Every mem- 
ber of the Cabinet, except Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, 
promptly resigned. Tyler then recommended the estabhshment 
of what he called the Exchequer Bank. Webster highly com- 
mended it, but Congress would have nothing to do with it. The 
majority of the Whigs in both Houses united in an address to 
the people, in which they declared (1841) that " the President . . . 
has voluntarily separated himself from those by whose exertions 
and suffrages he was elevated to that ofiice." They closed their 
address by protesting against the attempt of "one man" to 
control " the will of the nation." Later, a House .committee, 
with John Quincy Adams as chairman, charged the President 
with having " strangled legislation of vital importance by the fi\e 
times repeated stricture of the Executive cord." 

The Whigs of Massachusetts held a meeting at which they 
resolved that " all political connection between them and John 
Tyler was at an end from that day forth." In future only a few 
members of Congress, nicknamed the " Corporal's guard," upheld 
the President. The '' Locofocos " (§ 366) would not stand by him, 

^See Mason's Veto Power, 76-78; Dewey's Financial History of the United 
States, 241-243. 



1841-1842] THE UNION, NATIONAL DE\'ELOPMENT 369 

and the Whigs hated him. The deadlock between him and the 
Whigs was not broken until just as he was leaving office, and the 
poHcy of the administration throughout was virtually Democratic. 

379. The "Dorr rebellion"; the " anti- renters." Meanwhile 
a controversy over a change in the state constitution .in Rhode 
Island threatened to end in civil war. Under its ancient charter 
the right of suffrage in that state was limited to landowners 
(holding an estate valued at not less than $134) and to their 
eldest sons. 

This provision now caused great inequality of representation. 
Newport had six members in the Legislature, while the city of 
Providence, with a population nearly three times larger, had only 
four. Repeated efforts had been made to remedy this inequality, 
but without effect. In 1841 a popular convention, or mass meet- 
ing, framed the " People's Constitution " ; it established universal 
suffrage and equal representation. A little later (1842), the Legis- 
lature summoned a convention which adopted the " Landholder's 
Constitution"; it made universal suffrage the rule for all natives 
of the state, but withheld that right from naturalized citizens 
unless they owned landed property. 

Both constitutions were submitted to popular vote ; the 
" People's " was accepted, the " Landholder's " rejected. The 
Legislature believed that the victory had been gained by fraud 
and forbade the Free Suffrage party putting the new constitution 
in force. The Free Suffragists paid no attention to this pro- 
hibition and elected (1842) Thomas W. Dorr governor, though 
Samuel W. King then held that position under the old charter. 
King and Dorr both threatened to maintain their respective 
authority by force of arms, but Dorr's followers abandoned him. 
He was arrested, convicted of treason, and sent to prison for life, 
but was pardoned a few years later. Before the close gf 1842 
a regularly organized state convention adopted a new constitu- 
tion, which put an end to the old charter government and prac- 
tically granted manhood suffrage, or all that the Free Suffrage 
party asked. 



370 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1842 

While this bloodless revolution was going on in Rhode Island 
the tenants of the Van Rensselaer and other old patroon estates 
(§§ 57> 58) in New York started an anti-rent movement. The 
dispute became serious, but was finally settled by the landlords 
consenting to sell the estates at a reduced valuation. This gave 
the purchasers a freehold title and virtually put an end to the 
patroon system. 

380. The Webster- Ashburton Treaty ; slavery agitation. The 
boundary between the northeastern states and Canada had not 
been definitely fixed by the treaty of peace with Great Britain 
made in 1783. The territory in dispute was chiefly that between 
Maine and Canada; it was a little over 12,000 square miles in 
extent, and the controversy in regard to it threatened to involve 
the two countries in war. Negotiations for a settlement of this 
dangerous question were opened by Great Britain and the United 
States, through Lord Ashburton and Daniel Webster, aided by 
Judge Story. 

A treaty^ was made (1842): (i) it secured to us more than 
half of the tract of land claimed by Maine ; (2) it reaffirmed the 
boundary line of 1818 from the" Mississippi to the Rocky Moun- 
tains (§318); (3) it made provision for the mutual surrender 
of fugitives from justice. In the course of the negotiations 
Mr. Webster wrote Lord Ashburton respecting the unsettled ques- 
tion of impressments (§§299, 312). He stated that henceforth 
it must be distinctly understood that the crew of an American ves- 
sel would " find their protection in the flag which is over them." 

In the House, John Quincy Adams, the venerable champion of 
freedom and free speech (§§ 365, 373), found a young and vigor- 
ous coadjutor in Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio. Giddings detested 
slavery as heartily as the most zealous of the New England 
Abolitionists. He offered a series of resolutions (1842) declaring 
that since slavery was an abridgment of the natural rights of man, 
it could not be constitutionally extended beyond the states it then 
occupied.^ The House censured Giddings; Jie resigned, but was 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 70, '- Ibid., No. 69. 



1K42-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 371 

immediately reelected by a large majority and returned to renew 
the battle in behalf of free soil. 

At the same time (1842) the Supreme Court of the United 
States {Frigg vs. Pennsylvania) decided that under the law of 
1793 (§257) the national government could not compel the 
local officers of a state to take part in the arrest or return of run- 
away negroes. This decision naturally created much excitement 
in the South, and that section demanded the enactment of a new 
and more stringent fugitive-slave law; eight years later (1850), 
the desired law was enacted (§ 414). 

The growing irritation on this subject was aggravated by the 
refusal of Governor Seward of New \'ork to give up certain white 
citizens charged with stealing slaves at the South. This provoked 
Virginia and South Carohna to enact a law ordering the imprison- 
ment, while in port, of all colored seamen arriving on New York 
vessels. Later (1844), Mr. Hoar of Boston was sent by his state 
to Charleston to secure the liberation of several such seamen who 
were citizens of Massachusetts, — a state which had declined to 
give any aid in enforcing the return of fugitive slaves. The people 
of Charleston retaliated by compelling Mr. Hoar to leave the city. 

381. The question of the annexation of Texas. The question 
of the extension of slaveholding territory in the southwest was 
now coming to the front. When Houston became President of 
the " Lone Star Republic " of Texas (§ 329) he was fully resolved 
to secure its annexation to the United States. The slaveholders 
in the South were eager to aid him to accomplish his object. 
That class felt that the annexation of a large area of slaveholding 
territory was demanded by the law of political self-preservation. 
They knew that if Texas should be added and cut up into a 
number of slave states it would decidedly strengthen the South 
in the Senate. They furthermore declared that the market price 
of negroes would thereby be greatly increased. 

The Missouri Compromise Act of 1820 (§ 324) had made free 
soil of the whole territorial area of the Louisiana purchase north 
of the parallel of 36° 30', the state of Missouri alone excepted. 



372 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1842- 

It seemed plain that unless the South could obtain Texas, slavery 
must soon be girdled by free states; in that case the power of 
the slaveholding class in Congress would be driven to the wall by 
an ever-increasing majority of northern representatives. 

Calhoun urged immediate annexation not only as a measure 
necessary to the poHtical and commercial welfare of the South 
but as the only effective method -of preventing Great Britain from 
getting control of Texas. Lord Brougham (1843) implored 
ParHament to use its influence to effect the emancipation of the 
slaves in Texas, saying that the success of such a movement 
" must end in the abolition of slavery throughout the whole of 
America." Calhoun believed that England adopted this course 
hoping thereby to secure a monopoly of the production of sugar, 
cotton, rice, and tobacco for her colonies. 

On the other hand, Senator Benton, one of the leaders of the 
Democratic party, who was himself a slaveholder, denounced the 
annexation project. He ridiculed the idea that Great Britain 
had any designs on Texas. He declared that the annexation 
scheme was urged mainly by three classes : (i) by certain poli- 
ticians who were intriguing for the presidency ; (2) by those who 
were plotting to dissolve the Union in order to form a southern 
slaveholding Confederacy; and (3) by southern speculators who 
held Texas scrip or Texas lands. 

382. Sectional excitement over the question of annexation. The 
excitement over the discussion of the Texas question rose to fever 
heat.^ Webster and Clay strongly opposed the annexation of 
"another acre of slave territory," and eight northern legislatures 
protested against it. They declared that it would tend to nation- 
ahze slavery, and that it would involve us in a war with Mexico, 
which absolutely refused to recognize Texan independence. 

John Quincy Adams, with twelve members of Congress, pub- 
lished an address declaring that annexation would not only 
" result in a dissolution of the Union " but would fully " justify it." 

1 See Rhodes' United States, I, 75-85 ; Von Hoist's Constitutional History of the 
United States, II, ch. vii. 



i842-m4] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 



171 



In the Massachusetts Legislature the House resolved not to be 
bound by the action of Congress. 

On the other hand, mass meetings were held in various parts of 
South Carolina, at which it was resolved that it would be better 
"to be out of the Union with Texas than in it without her." 
But both at the South and the North there were strong protests 
on the part of influential citizens and prominent journals against 
the utterance of threats of disunion. 

383. Texas and the presidential campaign. While the people 
were discussing the question, President Tyler, with the help of 
Upshur, his Secretary of State, and later, with the aid of Calhoun, 
was quietly but vigorously pushing forward the scheme of annex- 
ation. As the time drew near for the nomination of presidential 
candidates the feeling about Texas daily became more intense. 

The Liberty party (§375) held its National Convention first 
(1843), and again nominated James G. Birney. Their platform 
strongly condemned any attempt to extend slavery to national 
territory and declared the fugitive-slave law of 1793 and the 
clause in the Constitution on which it was based " null and void." 
The Whig party at their convention (1844) nominated Henry 
Clay and adopted a brief "broad-construction " (§ 256) platform, 
advocating the establishment of a tariff for both revenue and 
protection, and a "well-regulated currency"; their platform did 
not mention Texas or slavery. 

The Democratic National Convention (1844) adopted a "strict- 
construction" (§256) platform. They deprecated any interfer- 
ence by Congress with the question of slavery as dangerous to the 
stability of the Union, and resolved that " the reoccupation of 
Oregon (§ 389) (then held jointly with Great Britain) and the 
reannexation of Texas (§ 318) at the earHest practicable period 
are great American measures which this convention recommends." 
They nominated James K. Polk of Tennessee, an " unconditional 
annexationist," for President. 

The southern Whigs urged Clay to soften his outspoken oppo- 
sition to the immediate annexation of Texas, fearing that otherwise 



374 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1844-1845 

he would lose many votes at the South. Clay, who, hke Webster, 
was a "Union saver," yielded and wrote a letter for publication, 
in which he said of annexation : " I should be glad to see it 
upon just and fair terms. I do not think that the subject of 
slavery ought to affect the question one way or the other." The 
Whigs were confident that they could elect their candidate; but 
this letter repelled the vote of the antislavery members of that 
party. Clay was defeated and the Democrats elected Polk, — the 
first poUtical "dark horse," — with George M. Dallas as Vice 
President. The electoral vote stood 170 for Polk to 105 for 
Clay, and the* popular vote, 1,337,243 to 1,299,068. 

384. Texas annexed (1845); admission of Florida and Texas; 
new tariff. The question of annexation came up in Congress for 
the last time in the closing days of Tyler's administration. It 
was doubtful whether the necessary two-thirds vote could be 
obtained in the Senate; Congress therefore resorted to the 
expedient of carrying the measure through by a joint resolution ' 
which simply required a majority of each House. The motion 
to annex was passed, March i (1845), and with it an amendment 
proposed by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, which prohibited 
slavery in the Texan territory north of the Missouri Compromise 
line of 36° 30' (§ 324), but left all territory south of that line 
open to it. The entire area thus annexed then had an extent of 
over 376,000 square miles. It was expected that Texas would be 
divided into at least five states, one free and the rest slave. 

The passage of the vote was triumphantly announced from the 
capitol by the firing of one hundred guns. Texas was the last slave 
state to enter the Union ; but it was not formally admitted until the 
Congress of the next administration met (1845) and after Florida, 
the twenty-seventh state, had entered. The Texans grievously dis- 
appointed the South by refusing to divide their immense territory 
into states ; hence the Proslavery party in the southern states did 
not gain the large increase in pohtical power in the United States 
Senate which it had confidently expected to obtain (§ 381). 
1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 71. 



1844- 



THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 



375 



Meanwhile the " Compromise Tariff " of 1833 (§ 355) had cut 
down the customs duties to such an extent that the Treasury was 
threatened with empty vaults. T'he Whigs, therefore, repealed 
the law and passed a new tariff act (1842);^ it was mainly 
intended for revenue, but it had strong protective features. 

385. Professor Morse invents the electric telegraph. As the 
annexation of Texas was the most important political event of the 




The Republic of Texas, annexed in 1845, and admitted to the 
Union December 29 of that Year 

The black and white bars on the southwest indicate the disputed territory which 
caused the Mexican War. The '" Oregon Country " was held jointly with Great 
Britain 



Harrison and Tyler administration, so the application of electricity 
to the transmission of messages and news was the most important 
event in our material progress. Franklin (§ 181) said in 1750, 
" There are no bounds (but what expense and labor give) to the 
force man may raise and use in the electrical way." But for more 
than three quarters of a century after that philosopher made his 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 237. 



1^6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1844- 

experiments little was accomplished in the direction which he 
had pointed out. 

Then (183 1) Professor Joseph Henry (later connected with the 
Smithsonian Institute) invented an electro-magnet w^hich would 
transmit a current over a mile or more of wire and ring a bell at 
the farther extremity. Taking the hint from this apparatus, Pro- 
fessor Samuel F. B. Morse (§ 374) invented (1832) the first record- 
ing telegraph which would make permanent intelligible characters. 
Professor Morse's partner, Mr. Alfred Vail, developed and per- 
fected these characters and so formed the "dot-and-dash alpha- 
bet " which was finally adopted. 

But electricity had not yet been compelled to fulfill its task. 
The current failed after it had traveled a short distance. The 
question was how to overcome this difficulty. Mr. Morse said, 
" If it will go ten miles without stopping, I can make it go around 
the globe "; but it would not go ten miles. At length, after many 
failures, he succeeded in inventing a relay magnet which would 
reenforce the current and send it to any distance. Then the 
problem was solved. 

386. Congress appropriates $30,000 to build the first telegraph ; 
the line opened (1844). Professor Morse, with his partner, 
Mr. Vail, publicly exhibited (1837) a small model of the tele- 
graph, but capitalists declined to risk their money in constructing 
a trial line. The inventor then petitioned Congress to grant 
him $30,000 to build a line between Washington and Baltimore. 
His petition was generally treated with ridicule. One member sug- 
gested that if the money should be voted, part of it ought to be 
used for making mesmeric experiments, while another suggested 
that the funds would be more wisely employed in building a rail- 
road to the moon. 

The last day of the session (March 3, 1843) ^^'^'^ reached, but 
Congress had taken no action. Professor Morse was almost 
penniless. He saw nothing but failure and ridicule before him. 
He waited in the capitol until a few minutes before midnight, and 
then, unable to endure the strain, left the building with a sinking 



]ft44-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 377 

heart. He had hardly gone when Congress took up his bill and 
passed it without division. 

The spring of 1844 saw the Washington and Baltimore telegraph 
line completed and in working order. On May 24 Professor Morse, 
sitting in the old Supreme Court room in the capitol, sent over 
the wire these words quoted from Scripture, " What hath God 
wrought ! " Two days later, the National Democratic Convention, 
then in session in Baltimore, nominated Polk for President. The 
telegraph instantly flashed the important report to Congress. 
The following day (May 27, 1844) the heading "Telegraphic 
News " appeared in a Washington journal for the first time in the 
world's history ; it has never since been dropped. 

Professor Morse lived to see his Hne of forty miles multiplied 
in the ignited States more than three thousand fold ; he saw the 
American continent (1856) crossed and the Atlantic Ocean 
(1866) cabled by permanent electric wires. Thirty-seven years 
later, Mar(!oni succeeded in sending a message from the United 
States to Europe by his wonderful system of wireless telegraphy. 
The same year (1903) saw the completion of the first American 
cable from San Francisco to Manila. On that occasion President 
Roosevelt sent the first national telegram around the world. 

387. Development of telegraphic communication and of elec- 
tricity. A network of more than a million miles of telegraphic wire 
now covers the United States. Like a gigantic nervous system, 
it stretches from city to city and from town to town. It practically 
puts every center of population throughout the Union in instan- 
taneous communication with every other, and with the remotest 
parts of the civilized globe besides. 

The next great step in electrical progress was the simultaneous 
invention of the telephone by Professor Bell and Professor Gray 
(1876). It brings places as far apart as Boston and Kansas City 
within speaking distance of each other. \\'hen it shall be still fur- 
ther perfected the " long-distance telephone " promises to make 
it possible to carry on a conversation between the Atlantic and 
Pacific coasts, or even between America and Europe. 



378 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1845- 

Again, various experiments had been made with electricity, 
with the view of using it as an illuminator or as a motor power. 
No practical results of value were obtained until the invention of 
the arc light and the Edison incandescent light (1879). 

P'ive years later (1884), Edison set in operation at Menlo Park, 
New Jersey, two miles of electric railway, the first opened to the 
American public. Electricity has ever since been coming into 
use on an increasing scale. It now drives machinery, carriages, 
cabs, and trucks, and it has generally superseded horses on our 
street railways. The day is perhaps not far distant when it will 
be employed to operate long lines of railway ; and should the 
"storage system" be perfected, we may yet see it used in pro- 
pelling vessels on the Atlantic. 

388. Summary. The three most important national events of 
the Harrison and Tyler administration were : (i) the negotiation 
of the Webster- Ashburton Treaty, (2) the invention of the electric 
telegraph, and (3) the annexation of Texas as a slave* state. 



James K. Polk (Democrat), One Term (1845- 1849) 

389. The Oregon question. The new President entered office 
with a well-defined plan of political action. He intended : (i) to 
bring about a reduction of the tariff (§ 384) ; (2) to reestablish 
the independent treasury (§ 371); (3) to secure a final settle- 
ment of the long-pending Oregon question (§ 383) ; and, finally, 
(4) to acquire the Mexican territory of California, which was 
greatly coveted by the South. He was successful in every par- 
ticular of his programme. Now that Texas was annexed (§ 384), 
the question came up whether we should make good the Demo- 
cratic demand (§ 383) for the occupation of Oregon. This region, 
called by an Indian name used by Jonathan Carver in 1766, lay 
between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. On the south 
it extended to the forty-second parallel, or the northern limit of 
the Mexican province of California ; on the north, to latitude 



I 

! ^- 



V 



! o 



I <= 



ft.- ^ 




i^ 



184^] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 379 

54° 40', or the southern boundary of the Russian possession called 
Alaska (§ 332). 

Spain, through her early voyagers (1543-1774), planted her 
flag on the Oregon coast; the English explorers (1579-1793) also 
claimed it. The government of the LTnited States disputed both 
these claims. We based our title (i) on Captain Gray's discovery 
and partial exploration of the Columbia River in 1792 (§258); 
(2) on the exploration made by Lewis and Clark in 1805 -1806 
(§ 283) ; (3) on emigration and settlement, beginning with Astor's 
fur-trading post established in 181 1 (§ 312) and continued by 
missionaries and pioneers from 1832 ; (4) on the transfer of all 
Spanish claims to us by the Florida purchase treaty of 18 19 
(§ 318). The conflict of the British and American claims was 
adjusted by an agreement made in 18 18 and confirmed in 1827. 
It was stipulated that the two nations should occupy the "■ Oregon 
Country" jointly, with the proviso that either government might 
terminate the agreement by giving a year's notice to the other. 
This arrangement was in force when Polk entered oflice. 

390. What America thought of Oregon. Before the construction 
of railways, the " Oregon Country " seemed to many American 
statesmen hardly worth disputing about. Its enormous distance 
from Washington made it a que<=tion w^hether it could be advanta- 
geously added to the LTnion or securely retained. Jeff'erson thought 
(181 1) that Oregon might become an independent American nation 
"unconnected with us but by the ties of blood and interest." 

Benton declared that the Rocky Mountains ought to be regarded 
as the "natural and everlasting" western boundary of the United 
States. Webster is represented as saying of Oregon : " W^hat do 
we want with this vast worthless area, this region of savages and 
wild beasts, of deserts of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of 
cactus and prairie dogs? " But John Quincy Adams believed that 
the Pacific coast belonged to us by " manifest destiny "; Benton, 
too, became a convert to the same idea^ and ardently advocated 
our settlement of that distant region. His bronze statue in 
St. Louis stands pointing toward the Rocky Mountains, with his 



380 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1845- 

words, " There is the East ; there is the road to India ! " inscribed 
on the pedestal. 

391. Our occupation of the "Oregon Country"; Whitman's 
journey; the treaty. The permanent American settlement of the 
" Oregon Country " did not begin until 1834, when the Methodists 
sent out missionaries to the Indians. A little later (1836), two 
Orthodox missionaries, Dr. Whitman and H. H. Spalding, started 
with their brides to make a home in the wilderness of the far West. 
They followed the Oregon trail (§ 30) which led from the Missouri 
through the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains (§ 405). They 
were the first emigrants who succeeded in getting a wagon, or at 
least a part of a wagon, across the country to Fort Boise (Idaho). 
There the wheels were left, and Dr. Whitman and his wife went 
on to Walla Walla, on a tributary of the Columbia. Dr. Whitman's 
famous wagon naturally suggested the emigration of families, for 
where one wheeled vehicle could go more could follow. 

Six years later (1842), Dr. Whitman set out for the East. His 
object was to secure the continuance of his mission and to induce 
Christian families to go to Oregon. After a terrible winter journey 
of four thousand miles he reached Boston. A small party of emi- 
grants had already gone to the Pacific coast. Encouraged by the 
action of the Senate, a second party numbering about a thousand 
started in 1843. Dr. Whitman went as guide. By his efficient help 
the emigrants reached the land they sought. Benton says that 
these men, with those who followed them, "saved" the territory 
of Oregon to the United States. The new settlers on the Columbia 
framed a provisional government and held the country for the 
future.^ 

T'he northern boundary of the "Oregon Country," as held 
jointly by the United States and Great Britain (§ 389), was 54° 40'. 
In 1846 the political cry was : "The whole of Oregon or none ! " 
" Fifty-four forty or fight ! " (§ 332). But a httle later our contest 
with Mexico made the government willing to concede a part of 

1 See H. H. Bancroft's Oregon, I, ch. v, xiii-xv; Benton's Thirty Years' View, 
II, 469; Professor Bourne's Essays; Lyman's Oregon, IV, 386. 



lS4fr 



THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 



381 



the disputed territory to the demands of Oreat Britain. A treaty ^ 
was negotiated (1846) which fixed our northern boundary at the 
49th parallel. This gave us the absolute control of the Columbia 
River and possession of about 300,000 square miles of territory, 
out of which the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts 
of Montana and Wyoming were subsequently formed. Two years 
later (1848), Congress organized Oregon Territory. Calhoun de- 
manded that, in common with all of the public domain, it should 




The United States in 1846 after the Acquisition, by Treaty, 
OF the "Oregon Country" 

be declared open to slavery ; but as the Territory lay north of the 
Missouri Compromise line of 36° 30' (§324), Congress applied 
to it the provisions of the celebrated Ordinance of 1787 (§ 237), 
and thus excluded slavery forever from the new Territory. 

392. The Texan boundary dispute. Before we got possession of 
Texas, Webster, Clay, and Benton declared that if we annexed it 
(§ 384) we should *' annex a war with Mexico." Their predictions 



1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 74, 



Sz THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [184&-1846 



were soon fulfilled. Texas insisted that her western boundary 
was the Rio Grande. This w^as in accordance with the claim 
made by La Salle in the seventeenth century (§ 159), and which 
Spain and France, had recognized by their respective treaties 
(1800, 1803) (§§ 172, 280). The Republic of Mexico, however, 
contended that Texas did not extend farther west than the left 
bank of the Nueces. For this reason the strip of territory between 
that river and the Rio Grande was disputed ground, and each 
country vehemently denied that the other had any right to it 
(see map in § 385). 

393. Taylor's advance into the disputed territory; Arista's 
attack. In the summer of 1845 ^^e President ordered General 
Taylor, who was then in Texas, to cross the Nueces and take post 
at Corpus Christi, within the disputed territory. 

Polk next (January, 1846) ordered him to advance as far as 
the Rio Grande. Taylor did so and erected Fort Brown, oppo- 
site the Mexican town of Matamoras, on the farther bank of the 
river. Arista, the Mexican commander, notified General Taylor 
that he considered his advance an act of war and requested him 
to faU back to the Nueces. Taylor refused to move ; Arista then 
crossed the river and (April 24, 1846) surprised and captured a 
small party of American troops. In the fight several of our men 
were killed. 

394. Polk's message to Congress ; Lincoln's "Spot Resolutions. ' ' 
President Polk at once sent a special message^ to Congress. 
He said : " Mexico has passed the boundary of the L^nited States, 
has invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon the 
American soil." "War exists, and notwithstanding all our efforts 
to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself." The United 
States forthwith declared war^ and called for 50,000 volunteers. 

When Abraham Lincoln entered Congress (1847) he presented 

his famous " Spot Resolutions," in which he asked the President 

to inform Congress, first, just where the " spot " was on which the 

blood of American citizens had been shed; and next, to state 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 72, 2 ibid., No. •;2' 



1846] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 383 

whether those Americans were or were not " armed soldiers " sent 
to that " spot " by his express orders. Lowell wrote his stinging 
satire entitled the " Biglow Papers " in opposition to the war ; 
and Thomas Corwin of Ohio boldly declared .in the Senate that 
if he were a Mexican he would greet the American invaders with 
" bloody hands " and welcome them " to hospitable graves." ' 

395. Palo Alto ; Resaca de la Palma ; Monterey. Meanwhile 
(reneral Taylor, with his army of less than 3000 men, had ad- 
vanced against a Mexican force of more than double that number. 
He fought a battle (May 8, 1846) on the marshy plain of Palo 
Alto, and followed it up the next day with the battle of the 
ravine of Resaca de la Palma. Both of these engagements took 
place within the disputed territory, between the Nueces and the 
Rio Grande ; in each case we were successful and the Mexicans 
were routed with heavy loss. 

Taylor then crossed the Rio Grande, occupied Matamoras 
(§ 393), and advanced into the interior of Mexico as far as the 
fortified town of Monterey. Here the enemy made a determined 
stand. Three days of desperate fighting followed (September 
22-24, 1846) ; Taylor's men dug their way through the stone 
walls of the houses or climbed to the flat roofs and fought their 
way from street to street till they took the city. 

396. General Scott takes chief command; his plan of campaign ; 
Buena Vista. As it now seemed probable that the Mexicans 
would make a prolonged resistance, General AMnfield Scott 
(§ 306), the senior officer in the United States army, was ordered 
to take the chief command. His plan was to leave Taylor with 
a small force to hold the line of the Rio Grande while he 
embarked with an army to capture the fortified port of Vera 
Cruz. He then purposed moving directly on the city of Mexico, 
the capital of the Mexican Republic. 

General Kearny, commander of the Department of the West, 
had advanced from Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) against Santa Fe 
to take possession of that city and of New Mexico, preparatory to 

1 See Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, IV, 24. 



I-* ' BOUNDARY D c r u nic ' ' " ^ i' 
yTi4 ^ Great AN ( r/?>l ^ 




iimpjei Reyl'.v, „'»-•■■* -*^vs<: 



No. I: The Mexican War. No. II: Scott's March to the 
City of Mexico 



384 



1847] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 385 

moving forward to occupy the Mexican province of California. 
The Mormons (§ 372) raised a battalion which took part in this 
expedition of conquest and helped to secure California to the 
United States. 

Taylor's force was now about 4600 men ; with this little army 
he resolved to hold the wild mountain pass of Buena Vista, to the 
southwest of Monterey (§ 395), against the enemy who were 
advancing to attack him. Santa Ana, the commander in chief 
of the Mexican army, surrounded Taylor with a force 20,000 
strong ; he then sent the American general a dispatch telling 
him that he must surrender or be cut to pieces. " Old Rough 
and Ready," as his men called him, determined to hold his 
ground, and the unequal contest began (February 22, 1847). 
Colonel Jefferson Davis, with his gallant Mississippians, and 
Captain Bragg, with his batteries hurling storms of grapeshot, 
saved the day. Santa Aria retreated, and Buena Vista w^as 
recorded on our roll of victories, though it cost Taylor more than 
a sixth of his entire force to win the fight. This w^as Taylor's last 
battle ; he resented w^hat he considered to be political interference 
with his plans, and, leaving General Wool in command, returned 
late in 1847 to his home in Louisiana. The enthusiasm over Buena 
Vista made Taylor's name the Whig rallying cry as candidate for 
the presidency. 

397. Vera Cruz ; Cerro Gordo ; advance on Mexico. General 
Scott with less than 12,000 men had already taken \'era Cruz 
(§ 396), "the Gibraltar of Mexico" (March 27, 1847). Among 
the officers who made their mark in that victorious siege two 
deserve especial notice, — Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant and Cap- 
tain Robert ¥.. Lee. Seventeen years later, they were to face each 
other on the battlefields of the Civil \\a.r. 

Having captured the castle and port, Scott began his advance 
into the interior. He met the enemy on the rugged heights of 
Cerro Gordo. Santa Ana fled and the Americans moved for- 
ward. In August (1847) our little force climbed the summit 
of the Cordilleras and looked down on the capital of Mexico, 



2,S6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



1847 



surrounded by lakes and sparkling in the sun. The city could not 
be approached except by the National Road, — a causeway built 
across a marsh. Santa Ana posted a strong force to sweep that 
road with cannon. The venerable Duke of Wellington had fol- 
lowed, on a map, the advance of the American general to this 
point ; then he said : " Scott is lost. ... He can't take the city 
and he can't fall back upon his base." 

398. Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec. 
But Scott recalled Napoleon's maxim, " Never go where your 
enemy wants you to go." He turned aside and made his way 
forward by a circuitous route over the rough lava beds, building 
his road and beating back the foe as he advanced. First he won 
the battle of Contreras (August 20, 1847), and on the following 
day that of the convent of Churubusco. Next, after the bloodiest 
fight of the war, he took the cannon foundry of Molino del Rey 
(September 8, 1847). Less than a week later (September 13, 
1847), he stormed the castle-crowned heights of Chapultepec, 
which guarded the gate of the city. 

399. Scott enters the city of Mexico (1847); end of the war; 
results. The next day Scott entered the Mexican capital and 
hoisted the American flag (September 14, 1847) on the walls of 
the national palace. The contest was now practically over and 
the United States could dictate its own terms. The people of 
Mexico had fought bravely, but they were wretchedly organized 
and utterly lacking in miHtary training. 

The conflict with Mexico is perhaps the only modern war in 
which every battle ended in victory, and every victory was gained 
by the invading army. It was the training school for the Ameri- 
can Civil War. General Grant, who later severely condemned the 
war against Mexico, said that all the older officers who became 
conspicuous in that terrible struggle between the North and South 
had served under Taylor or Scott. 

400. Fremont is sent to California. When the Mexican War 
broke out Captain John C. Fremont, Benton's son-in-law, was in the 
Mexican province of California. His explorations in the far West 



1846] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 387 

(i 842-1 844) had won for him the popular name of the '' Path- 
finder," and the government sent him (1845) ^^ ^ third expedi- 
tion " to spy out " the coveted Mexican territory on the Pacific. 

In the spring of 1846 Fremont moved northward into Oregon. 
While there a messenger from Washington arrived (May 9, 
1846), bringing a verbal dispatch from Mr. Buchanan, Secretary 
of State. This dispatch, says Fremont, informed him that " the 
government intended to take California." He was instructed to 
counteract any schemes of the British to get possession of that 
country, and at the same time to " conciliate the good will of the 
inhabitants toward the United States." 

401. Fremont takes Sonoma; the "bear flag." Fremont at 
once returned to California and encamped near Sutter's Fort, in 
the valley of the Sacramento. Soon after his arrival a report 
was brought that Mexican forces were preparing to drive out all 
Americans. Fremont sent Merritt, one of his men, to capture 
Sonoma, a town about fifty miles north of San Francisco. Sonoma 
was quickly taken (June 14, 1846), and the Americans then 
hoisted the famous " bear flag." It was a strip of white cloth on 
which they had painted a huge *' grizzly" facing a star; under- 
neath was the inscription " California Republic." Fremont soon 
afterward fixed his headquarters at Sonoma. In commencing 
hostilities he had acted, says Benton, entirely on his own respon- 
sibility and without orders from the government. 

402 . Capture of Monterey ; conquest of California. A little later, 
Commodore Sloat, then commanding a United States squadron off 
the coast, entered the harbor of Monterey, south of San Fran- 
cisco. He ran up the "stars and stripes" (July 7, 1846) and 
proclaimed California " a portion of the United States." A week 
later. Captain Montgomery raised the same colors at San Fran- 
cisco. Admiral Seymour, in command of a British fleet, arrived 
shortly afterward at Monterey. To his astonishment he found the 
American flag flying over the town, the American squadron, 
then under Commodore Stockton, in its harbor, apd Fremont's 
mounted riflemen in camp. 



7,S8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1846-1848 

The Americans proceeded to organize a civil government 
(August 13, 1846) and chose Fremont for governor. Com- 
modore Shubrick, of the United States navy, arrived in January 
(1847); acting in conjunction with Commodore Stockton and 
Governor Fremont, these three commanders completed the occu- 
pation of the province without any very serious fighting. Fremont 
got the Hon's share of fame, and the people of California have 
always considered him the real conqueror of the country. 




The United States in 1854 

Showing the Mexican cessions of 1848 (namely, California, Utah, New Mexico) and 
the Gadsden purchase of 1853 (indicated by date on map) 

403. Treaty of peace (1848) ; territory ceded by Mexico ; the 
Gadsden purchase (1853). A little more than a year later, a treaty 
of peace ^ was signed (February 2, 1848) between Mexico and the 
United States. Mexico was forced to cede to us the territory of 
Upper California and New Mexico, for which, moved by the 
pressure of public opinion, we agreed to pay $15,000,000. The 
treaty made ^e Rio Grande the western boundary of Texas and 
1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 76. 



184^^] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 389 

the Gila River the northern boundary of Mexico. The Mexican 
government tried in vain to secure a pledge from the United 
States to keep slavery out of the ceded territory. 

The Mexican land cession included Utah, Nevada, and parts 
of Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming. Adding Texas, this region 
formed a broad belt extending from the (lulf of Mexico to the 
Pacific and having an area of over 850,000 square miles, or 
more than the entire American Republic possessed at the close 
of the Revolutionary War. 

Five years later (1853), in order to settle a dispute respecting 
the (iila River boundary. Captain Gadsden purchased the Mesilla 
Valley, a region south of that river, for the United States. For 
the sum of $10,000,000 we thus added to our previous acquisi- 
tions a tract having an area of more than 45,000 square miles. 

404. The new tariff ; Independent Treasury Act ; cheap post- 
age ; the Wilmot Proviso (1846); Calhoun's resolutions (1847); 
"Woman's Rights" Convention (1848). Meanwhile the Demo- 
cratic Congress had passed (1846) a new tariff act ^ (the Walker 
Tariff) (§ 384). It was mainly for revenue, and, with some excep- 
tions, on a free-trade basis. In 1857 the duties were still further 
lowered and the free list extended. This altered tariff remained 
in force until the spring of 1861, when the Morrill Tariff made the 
average rate of duty somewhat higher than the rate of 1846.^ Its 
chief object was revenue. 

In the course of the same summer (1846) Van Buren's great 
measure, the Independent or Subtreasury Act (§ 371), was per- 
manently reenacted.^ In 1845 Congress reduced the rate of 
postage to a maximum rate of ten cents — it had been twenty- 
five — and charged five cents for distances of three hundred miles 
and under. Two years later (1847), postage stamps were issued, 
but they did not come into general use until a number of years 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 249. 

2 Ibid., 262, 265. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 75 ; Dewey's Financial History of the 
United States, 252. 



390 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1S46- 

later. In 1863 postage on letters was reduced to three cents, 
and in 1883 to two cents. This rate is perhaps the cheapest in the 
world, since a two-cent stamp will carry a letter from Key West, 
Florida, to Sitka, Alaska, a distance of over 4000 miles, or from 
New York to Manila, a distance of 12,000 miles. 

Shortly after the Mexican War began (1846) President Polk 
asked Congress for an appropriation of ^2,000,000 to purchase 
territory from Mexico in order to adjust the boundary. A bill 
was introduced to that end ; David Wilmot, a Pennsylvania Demo- 
crat, offered the famous Wilmot Proviso (1846) as an amend- 
ment to this bill. It extended the provision of the Ordinance of 
1787 (§ 237), which prohibited slavery, so that it would cover all 
territory which might be ceded to us by Mexico. 

Many northern Democrats voted with the northern Whigs for 
the Wilmot Proviso ; it passed the House, but did not reach the 
Senate in time to be acted upon. Every northern Legislature but 
one approved of the measure ; but the Southern States, with few 
exceptions, passed resolutions refusing to submit to it. They pro- 
tested against any legislation which should prevent slaveholders 
from taking their negroes with them into the public domain. 

After a prolonged fight the Wilmot Proviso failed of adoption, 
but it led to the organization, two years later, of the Free-Soil 
party, which was eventually absorbed by the Republican party. It 
also led to the exclusion of slavery from Oregon Territory (§ 391). 
After the beginning of the Civil War, Congress, by the Territorial 
Act (1862), accepted the principle of the Proviso and prohibited 
" slavery in any territory of the United States now existing, or 
which may be hereafter formed or acquired." 

At the time of the passage of the Missouri Compromise Act 
(1820) Calhoun admitted the right of Congress to exclude slavery 
from the territories (§ 324). In 1837 he did not openly take 
the opposite ground (§ 373). But in 1847 he took a new and 
aggressive stand and offered a series of resolutions ^ in the Senate 
in which he emphatically denied the constitutional power of 

1 See Benton's Thirty Years' View, II, 696. 



1847-1848] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 391 

Congress to shut out slavery from the public lands. He further- 
more declared that the exercise of such power would necessarily 
lead to the dissolution of the Union. 

These resolutions anticipated the Dred Scott decision of ten 
years later (§ 433). No action was taken on Calhoun's motion. 
Soon afterward (1847) he wrote a letter to a member of the Ala- 
bama Legislature, in which he declared that he believed the South, 
instead of avoiding the slavery contest, should "■ force the issue on 
the North." He ended by saying that the true policy for the 
South to adopt was one of retaliation, and that they should close 
their ports against seagoing vessels from the offending Northern 
States, leaving open the trade of the West by the Mississippi. 
This course, said he, would be "a remedy short of disunion," 
while it would tend " to detach the Northwestern from the 
Northeastern states." ^ 

While this agitation respecting the extension of slavery was 
going on in and out of Congress, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 
Reverend Samuel J. May, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and 
Lucy Stone were urging that women should stand on a political 
equality with men. The first Woman's Rights Convention in 
the world was held at Seneca Falls, New York, in the summer of 
1848. This meeting led to the organization of the National 
Woman Suffrage Convention which met in Worcester, Massachu- 
setts, two years later (1850). The agitation thus begun has 
resulted in recent years in the admission of women, in several 
states, to equality of suffrage and power to hold office, and in 
admission to partial suffrage in a number of other states. 

405. Discovery of gold in California. Just before the treaty of 
peace with Mexico was signed (§ 403) gold was discovered (Jan- 
uary 24, 1848) in California. It was found in the newly dug mill 
race of Captain Sutter's sawmill at Coloma, on the American 
River. Specimens of the ore were carried to Governor Mason, 
and he, with Colonel W. T, Sherman, carefully tested them. The 
discovery caused no particular excitement, as it was not believed 

] See Benton's Thirty Years' View, II, 699-700, 



392 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1848 



that the precious metal could be obtained in paying quantities. 
But early in May (1848) a Mormon walked through the village of 
San Francisco, holding up a bottle of yellow dust in one hand, 
swinging his hat with the other, and shouting at the top of his 
voice : " Gold ! gold ! gold from the American River ! " Then 
the rush began, and soon the entire male population of San 
Francisco and vicinity was ''off to the diggings." 

The news was speedily transmitted to the East ; a box of Cali- 
fornia gold was exhibited at the war office at Washington, and the 
President spoke of the marvelous discovery in his message. 



(H( 1. n i> 




Lewis and Clark's Exploration (1804-1806); First Settlement 
OF Oregon ; Discovery of Gold in California 



406. Emigration to California; the San Francisco "Vigilance 
Committee " ; results of the production of gold. A great movement 
of emigration to California^ at once began. From Maine to Texas 
thousands of men, armed with pick and shovel, crowded the ports 
on their way to the new El Dorado. The recently established line 
of Pacific mail steamers could not carry the multitude that besieged 
its offices. In the height of the excitement emigrants eagerly 

1 See H. H. Bancroft's California, VI, ch. vii-ix. 



1848 J THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 393 

paid a thousand dollars for steerage passage with the privilege of 
sleeping " in a coil of rope." Every kind of sailing ship whether 
seaw^orthy or not was pressed into the service ; and in a single 
year a thousand vessels entered the once almost solitary harbor 
of San Francisco. 

The next spring (1849) the great overland march began. By 
the end of April t\venty thousand men, women, and children had 
gathered at St. Joseph, Independence, and other points on the 
Missouri River, ready to cross the plains. They journeyed on 
horseback, on foot, and in huge, canvas-covered w^agons known 
as " prairie schooners." 

Multitudes died before they reached the Rocky Mountains, 
while others, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, were glad to stop 
at Salt Lake City (§ 372) and hire themselves out as day laborers 
to the thrifty Mormon farmers. Those whom no hardship or suf- 
fering could daunt pressed on, until at last they descended the 
Sierras and entered the Land of Promise. Their w^ary pathway 
through the terrible wilderness was marked by the bleaching skele- 
tons of horses and cattle, and by many newly made graves. 

Nothing could check the movement, and at the close of 1849 
between 80,000 and 100,000 emigrants had passed into California. 
Since the settlers w^ent out to work in the mines, they naturally 
respected free labor ; for as one brawny toiler said, Where every 
gold digger makes a white slave of himself there is no chance for 
keeping black ones. This feeling led to the adoption of a state 
constitution prohibiting slavery. 

The rapidly growing city of San Francisco naturally attracted 
many lawless and desperate characters. The inefficiency of the 
courts prompted the organization of a "Vigilance Committee," 
which practically governed the city from 1851 to 1856. It tried, 
convicted, and hanged several notorious criminals, drove many 
others out of the country, and, though acting without the law, it 
compelled the dangerous classes to respect law and order. In the 
end this organization, the result of an awakening of the public con- 
science, brought about important municipal and legislative reforms. 



394 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1848- 

Up to the time when gold was discovered on the Pacific coast 
the value of the whole annual product of that metal in the United 
States was less than ^250,000. In 1848 California alone pro- 
duced ^10,000,000; in 1849, $40,000,000; and by 1853 it had 
reached its maximum product of $65,000,000. The total amount 
obtained from 1848 to 1856 was $456,000,000, and the entire 
yield of the half century (1848-189 7) is estimated at upwards of 
$2,000,000,000. Yet the precious metal actually cost more labor 
than it was worth. 

The enormous production of gold in California had far-reaching 
economic and political results : (i) it raised the price of goods 
and labor; (2) it opened new markets and extended commerce ; 
(3) it filled a wilderness with settlers, stimulated the development 
of the Pacific coast, established new lines of steamships, com- 
pelled the opening of a stage route and a pony express from the 
Missouri to San Francisco, and in time led to the construction of 
a transcontinental telegraph and a transcontinental railway ; (4) it 
was one of the causes which induced the majority of the nations 
of Europe (187 0-1878) to stop the coinage of silver (except 
for " change "), and to adopt gold as their sole standard money ; 
(5) it extended the power of free labor to the Pacific coast and 
effectually shut out slavery from all the new West. 

407. Inventions and discoveries ; the sewing machine ; ether. 
It was during Polk's administration that Elias Howe patented 
(1846) what he called his '' iron needlewoman," the first practical 
sewing machine. It revolutionized the manufacture of clothing 
and greatly reduced its price. It was feared that the sewing 
machine would permanently throw large numbers of people out of 
work; but it has had just the opposite effect. Instead of con- 
tracting the field of hand labor, the introduction of machinery 
has actually extended it. At the same time the introduction of 
the telegraph, telephone, and typewriter has created new oppor- 
tunities of employment for thousands. 

A very remarkable discovery was now at hand. Dr. Horace 
Wells of Hartford, Connecticut, found (1844) by experiments in 



1846-1^48] THK UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 395 

dentistry that he could produce insensibiUty to pain by the use 
of nitrous oxide gas. This discovery stimulated the efforts of 
Dr. W. T. G. Morton of Boston, a former partner of Dr. Wells, 
to endeavor to find a more effective anaesthetic for longer opera- 
tions. Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston suggested to Dr. Morton, 
then a student in his office, to try the inhalation of the vapor of 
sulphuric ether ; to his surprise and delight it proved to be what 
he was seeking. 

In 1846 he obtained permission from the senior surgeon of the 
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to have a public test 
made in that institution. Late in the autumn of that year (Octo- 
ber 16, 1846) the first important operation ever performed under 
ether took place beneath the dome of the hospital. The room 
was completely filled with physicians and eminent men of other 
professions, who had been invited to see the miracle of painless 
surgery. The operation was successfully performed while the 
patient slept as quietly under the knife as a child in its cradle.^ 

Other physicians had privately experimented with ether, but 
Dr. Morton first publicly demonstrated the fact that it could be 
safely and conveniently used in serious surgical cases. He first 
gave ether to the world. For this reason he justly received the 
credit of having made the most beneficent contribution to medical 
science recorded in history, — one which must henceforth render 
every human being his debtor. In commemoration of his wt)rk 
his monument in Mount Auburn Cemetery, near Boston, bears 
this inscription : '' Before whom, in all time, surgery was agony. . . . 
Since whom, science has control of pain." 

408. The presidential election; new states; slavery and free- 
dom. The Democratic National Convention (1848) nominated 
Lewis Cass on a "strict-construction" (§256) platform, which 
reaffirmed the principles they had declared in 1840 (§ 375)- 
The Whig National Convention refused to make a platform ^ and 

1 See the Report of the Massachusetts General Hospital for 1848; N. I. Bow- 
ditch's Ether Controversy. 

2 But a Whig ratification meeting, held June 9, 1848. adopted a set of resolutions 
which has been called a platform. 



396 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [iS48-i,S49 

nominated General Zachary Taylor (§ 396). Neither convention 
would speak out on the question of the extension of slavery, — a 
subject which was soon to be uppermost in politics. Finally, a new 
organization, — the Free-Soil party, — which made the Wilmot 
Proviso (§ 404) its corner stone, held their National Convention. 

The Free-Soilers consisted mainly of two elements : the first 
was the Radical Democrats, who were determined to stop the 
extension of slavery at any cost. Their opj^onents, the Conserv- 
ative Democrats, or ''Hunkers," compared them to the farmer 
who set fire to his barn to clear it of rats, and so nicknamed them 
" barn burners." The second element in the Free-Soil party was 
the Abolitionists, or members of the old Tiberty party (§§ 375, 
t,St,). In its platform the Convention declared itself for "free 
soil, free speech, free labor, and free men." It nominated ex- 
President Martin Van Buren (§ 368). 

The Whigs succeeded in what was called the " star-and-stripe 
campaign," and elected (reneral Taylor, with Millard Fillmore as 
A'ice President. It was their second and last great political victory 
(§ 375)- I'he electoral vote stood 163 to 127, and the popular 
vote, 1,360,101 to 1,220,544, besides 291,263 cast by the Free- 
Soilers for Van Buren. 

Under Polk's administration three new states — Texas (1845), 
Iowa (1846), and Wisconsin (1848) — were admitted to the Union, 
malting the whole number thirty. Half were free and half were 
slave states. This division gave both sections equal representation 
in the Senate ; but owing to the much larger population of the 
North (due in considerable measure to immigration) (§ 374), the 
free states had 139 representatives to 91 from the slave states. 
It was plain that unless the South could secure additional slave 
territory the free states would soon control Congress. 

409. Summary. The principal events of Polk's administration 
were : (i) the settlement of the Oregon question by treaty with 
Great Britain ; (2) war wnth Mexico and the acquisition of a 
large amount of territory ; (3) the discovery of gold in Cahfornia ; 
(4) the discussion of slavery extension as represented in the Wilmot 



1H49] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEV^ELOPMENT 397 

Proviso and in Calhoun's resolutions ; (5) the rise of the Free- 
Soil party ; (6) the permanent establishment of the independent 
treasury system and the beginning of the woman's rights move- 
ment ; (7) the invention of the sewing machine and Morton's 
introduction of ether into surgery. 



Zachary Taylor (Wtttg), One Term (1849-18 5 3) 

410. General Taylor's position ; the question of slavery exten- 
sion. Before his election to the presidency (§ 408) General 
Taylor said, " I have no private purpose to accomplish, no party 
projects to build up, no enemies to punish, — nothing to serve 
but my country." Taylor did not seek the office to which the 
Whig party had elected him. He took so little interest in politics 
that he had never in his life cast a vote. He was one of the largest 
slaveholders in the South, yet, like Henry Clay (§§ 352, 382), 
he now opposed the extension of slavery. He was by nature a 
soldier, a man of action, blunt and "downright "; he had served 
under the "stars and stripes" for more than forty years ; he loved 
the flag and he loved the Union which that flag represented. 
*' Disunion," said he, " is treason." 

Congress had recently excluded slavery from Oregon Territory 
(§ 391). It was now called to decide the burning question whether 
slavery should be admitted into the new territory ceded by Mexico 
{§ 404). Clay had contended that the people of the territories 
should determine the question for themselves (§ 373). Cass, 
when a candidate for the presidency in 1847, had taken the 
same position in his argument against the Wilmot Proviso (§ 404). 
Calhoun ridiculed this doctrine as " Squatter Sovereignty " ; later, 
in a different form, it was advocated by Stephen A. Douglas, 
"under the name of "Popular Sovereignty." After a bitter contest 
•Howell Cobb of Cxeorgia, a strong advocate of slavery extension, 
was chosen Speaker of the House. This seemed to presage a 
victorv for the South. 



398 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1849 1850 

411. Debate on the admission of California as a free state. 
In anticipation of a Congressional battle over slavery extension, 
President Taylor had recommended the newly acquired territories 
to form state constitutions. He hoped that he might thereby 
get the vexed question promptly settled ; but he was disap- 
pointed. Acting on the President's suggestion, the people of 
Cahfornia adopted a constitution (November 13, 1849) which 
prohibited slavery (§ 406). This roused an angry debate which 
continued for nearly a year. 

If California should be admitted as a free state, there seemed 
little prospect that any of the remaining territory obtained from 
Mexico could be gained by the South. Webster, Clay, and 
Alexander H. Stephens declared that hitherto slavery had gener- 
ally taken the lead in Congress and controlled the Executive. 
The growth of the Repubhc, by the continued admission of free 
states, threatened to destroy this preponderance of the slave- 
holding class, and, as Giddings later said, to restore the political 
power to the people. 

The Free-Soilers rejoiced at the prospect of the nationaliza- 
tion of the principle of liberty ; but the Whigs and Democrats 
feared that this triumph would result in the destruction of the 
American commomvealth. The extreme proslavery class at 
the South vehemently opposed the action of the people of 
California. 

Toombs of Georgia said, "If by your legislation you seek to 
drive us from the territories of California and New Mexico 
(§ 403), purchased by the common blood and treasure of the 
whole people, ... I am for disunion." The southern mem- 
bers greeted this declaration with loud applause. Alexander H. 
Stephens said, "■ Every word uttered by my colleague [Mr. 
Toombs] meets my hearty response." The next year (1850) 
Stephens wrote, "We have ultimately to submit or fight." It 
was a significant fact that before the year came to an end 
a secession organ. The Southern Press, was established in 
Washington. 



1850] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 399 

412. Clay's Compromise Measures (1850). Clay now came for- 
ward, for the fourth time, in his favorite character of the ''great 
peacemaker" (§§324, 326, 355). He asked Congress to adopt 
his famous Compromise Measures^ (January 29, 1850). His 
purpose was to conciliate both sections and all political parties 
in order to preserve the Union. He offered five propositions : 
(i) to admit California as a free state ; (2) to apply Cass' principle 
of "Squatter Sovereignty" (§410) to New Mexico and LTtah, 
when they should become states. This provision would allow them 
to enter the LTnion, with or without slavery, as their inhabitants 
should demand ; (3) to purchase the claim which Texas made to 
a part of New Mexico ; (4) to abolish the slave trade, but not 
slavery itself, in the District of Columbia; (5) to pass a new and 
more efficient fugitive-slave act (§§ 257, 380) for the protection 
of southern planters. 

413. Debate on Clay's Compromise Measures (January 29- 
September 30, 1850).^ Webster, Cass, and Stephen A. Douglas 
warmly defended Clay's measures, but Seward, Chase, and Hale 
denounced them. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis refused to accept 
them for the South, and Benton ridiculed them as a mere '' com- 
promise plaster." Davis demanded that the Missouri Compromise 
line of 36° 30 '(§324) should be extended to the Pacific and that 
all of the new territory below that line should be open to slavery. 
This concession, he said, was the very least that he would be will- 
ing to take. Such an arrangement would have given the South a 
large part of CaHfornia, nearly the whole of what now constitutes 
Arizona and New Mexico, together with a corner of Nevada. 

Clay replied, " Coming from a slave state, as I do, ... no 
earthly power could induce me to vote for . . . the introduction 
of slavery where it had not before existed, either south or north 
of that line." ^ 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 7S-83. 

2 See Rhodes' United States, I, 122-198; Benton's Thirty Years' View, II, 742- 
780; Johnston's American Orations (Calhoun, Webster, Clay), II, 123-218. 

3 See Schurz's Clay, II, 333. 



400 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1850 

A week later, Clay spoke for two days (February 5-6), 
although he was then so ill that he could not ascend the steps 
of the capitol without help. His speech was an appeal to the 
North for concession and to the South for peace. When he 
concluded a throng of men and women crowded around him to 
shake hands with him and to kiss him.^ 

The hand of Death rested on Calhoun ; he was too feeble to 
address the Senate, and on March 4 a friend read his speech 
for him. It had the solemnity of a funeral oration. The great 
champion of slavery (§ 354) declared that if the North desired 
to save the Republic, it must first " concede to the South an 
equal right in the acquired territory," and next faithfully enforce 
the fugitive-slave law of 1793. 

Calhoun's scheme for saving the Union was to amend the Con- 
stitution and provide for the election of haw Presidents, one from 
the free and the other from the slave states. Each of these 
Presidents was to approve all acts of Congress before they could 
become laws. This *' double-headed " government might, he 
thought, preserve peace between the sections. 

The iollowing day he said, "As things now stand, the Southern 
States cannot remain in the Union." 

Calhoun saw signs of coming secession not only in the political 
but in the religious situation. The southern Methodists and 
Baptists, provoked by the action taken by northern churches on 
the subject of slavery, had split off (1845) from the main body and 
formed independent organizations. This action seemed prophetic 
of the withdrawal of the slaveholding states from the Union. 

Three days after Calhoun made his speech in the Senate 
Webster followed with his celebrated speech of the 7 th of March> 
1850. Again and again the great New England statesman had 
declared his unalterable opposition to the extension of slavery; 
on this point his convictions had undergone no change whatever,, 
but he now urged the necessity of conciliating the South in 
order to preserve the Union. He argued that to apply th^ 

1 See Schurz's Clay, II, 334-335. 



1850] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 40! 

Wilmot Proviso (§ 404) to California and New Mexico would not 
only be an affront to the southern people but an act of folly. 

Nature, said he, has effectually shut out slavery from those 
regions, and Congress is not called upon to " reenact the will of 
God." He pleaded for the cultivation of " more fraternal sen- 
timents " between the North and the South. "I hear," said he, 
"with distress and anguish the word ' secession.' " "There can 
be no such thing as peaceable secession." " Disruption must 
produce war, and such a war as I will not describe." 

Seward spoke on March 1 1 as the champion of freedom ; 
he denounced all attempts at compromise with slavery. He 
declared that the Constitution devoted the public domain " to 
union, to justice, to defense, to welfare, and to liberty." Then 
he startled his hearers by adding, " But there is a higher law 
than the Constitution," " which devotes it to the same noble 
purpose." 

But Seward's belief in the " peaceful extirpation of slavery " 
through the gradual working of economic forces and the progress of 
humanitarian sentiment alarmed the vSouth as much as Garrison's 
most radical utterances (§§ 353, 354). The people of that section, 
whether upholders of slavery or not, dreaded emancipation in any 
form. They were convinced that if the negroes should gain their 
freedom they would swamp the South by their numbers and drag 
civihzation down to the depths of hopeless barbarism. 

414. The "Omnibus Bill"; Taylor's death; Sumner; admis- 
sion of California. Early in May (1850) Clay's Compromise Meas- 
ures (§ 412) were reported in the form of a bill, which carried 
so many provisions that it got the name of the "Omnibus Bill." 
This bill was hotly debated for the rest of the session. Clay 
had now been on the floor of the Senate almost day after day 
for nearly six months battling for compromise. On July 22 he 
made his closing speech. His last great effort was an impas- 
sioned plea for the preservation of the nation. In that speech 
he declared that if the senator from South Carohna should raise 
the standard of disunion, as he threatened, " he will be a traitor^ 



402 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1850 

and I hope he will meet the fate of a traitor." In closing he 
added : " If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance 
unjustly, I never will fight under that banner. I owe a para- 
mount allegiance to the whole Union, a subordinate one to my 
own state." In the end, all of the provisions of Clay's Compro- 
mise Measures, including the new Fugitive-Slave Act^ (§412), 
were passed, but in the form of separate bills, before the end of 
September, 1850. This great compromise averted disunion for 
the time, and made it possible for the Republic to continue for 
another decade " half slave and half free." Both parties now 
exultingly declared that the terrible negro question was '' finally 
settled." But a meagerly attended convention called at Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, condemned the compromise and claimed for the 
South the right of secession. 

Meanwhile President Taylor had suddenly died (July 9, 1850) 
and Vice President Fillmore had taken the executive helm. 
Fillmore made Webster Secretary of State, and Massachusetts 
chose Charles Sumner to succeed him in the Senate. Sumner, 
though an uncompromising champion of the antislavery cause, 
was not an extreme Abolitionist. Speaking of his office, he said 
to his constituents : "■ I accept it as the servant of the Union, 
bound to oppose all sectionalism, . . . whether in unconstitu- 
tional efforts by the North to carry . . . freedom into the slave 
states [or] in unconstitutional efforts by the South to carry . . . 
slavery into the free states." 

In the autumn of 1850 California was admitted to the Union as 
a free state. This made the whole number of states thirty-one, — 
fifteen for slavery, sixteen for free soil. There could be little doubt 
that henceforth the free states would hold the political control. 

415. Excitement at the North over the new Fugitive-Slave Act. 
The excitement at the North over the passage of the new Fugi- 
tive-Slave Act (§ 414) was intense. From all parts of the free 
states memorials poured in upon Congress. They condemned 
the law as '' revolting to the moral sense of the civilized world," 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 82, 



iSoO-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 403 

and demanded its immediate repeal. The Liberty party (§ 383) 
proclaimed the statute "utterly null and void" and "no part of 
the Constitution." Giddings of Ohio declared that the execution 
of such a law was worse " than ordinary murder," and that no 
slaveholder could compel the freemen of his state to turn out " to 
chase the panting fugitive." On the other hand, Webster said, in 
a speech in Boston, that the antislavery movement was based on a 
"ghastly abstraction," and that Massachusetts must get rid of its 
" local prejudices." ^ The AboHtionists denounced Webster for up- 
holding the Fugitive-Slave Act. They called him " cotton hearted " 
and declared him a traitor to New England and to liberty. Whittier 
wrote his dirgeHke Hues of " Ichabod " to lament his fall : 

From those great eyes 

The soul has fled ; 
When faith is lost, when honor dies, 

The man is dead. 

But eight hundred leading citizens of Boston and vicinity came 
to Webster's defense. They signed a paper thanking him for 
recalhng them to their "duties under the Constitution." They 
accepted his declaration that if the North refused to return fugi- 
tive slaves, " the South would no longer be bound to observe the 
compact" of the Constitution; and that "a bargain cannot be 
broken on one side and still bind the other." Ten years later, 
Abraham Lincoln, in his inaugural, acknowledged that the Consti- 
tution required him to enforce the Fugitive-Slave Law. 

416. "Personal Liberty Laws"; enforcement of the Fugitive- 
Slave Act. We have seen that the first Fugitive-Slave Act (1793) 
had been enforced with difficulty (§§ 257, 380). Later, several 
Northern States passed " Personal Liberty Laws"^ forbidding state 
officers to aid in the enforcement of the original Fugitive-Slave 
Act (§ 257). The new act (1850) (§ 414) roused still greater 

1 See Schurz's Clay, 11, 340. 2 See Rhodes' United States, II, y^ ; Hart's 

American History told by Contemporaries, IV, Nos. 23-33; I-alor's Cyclopaedia, III, 
162 ; Von Hoist's United States, V, 65-70. 



404 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1850- 

opposition. In the course of the next ten years (1850-1860) four- 
teen Northern States passed laws to protect negroes claimed as 
runaway slaves. These statutes generally secured to such negroes 
the right of having counsel to defend them, the right to testify in 
their own behalf, and the right of trial by jury ; all of which privi- 
leges the Fugitive-Slave Act of 1850, like that of 1793, denied. 

The South complained that these laws " were intended to nullify 
an act of Congress, and that they violated the Constitution." 

Rufus Choate echoed this sentiment, saying in Boston, The 
return of fugitive slaves was an insignificant sacrifice on the altar 
of the Union, as compared to the hecatombs to be sacrificed 
through civil convulsions.^ 

So far as the actual number of fugitives was concerned, the loss 
to the South was small. In 1850 only one thirtieth of one per cent 
of the slave population escaped, and by i860 if had fallen much 
lower. Southern estimates, however, represented the total number 
of fugitives living in the North at 30,000, valued at $15,000,000. 

Long before the passage of the new law the Abolitionists had 
organized a regular system of escape for negroes who had suc- 
ceeded in entering the free states. The " Underground Railroad " 
consisted of a chain of stations, — private houses about a day's 
journey apart, — and the fugitives were hurried along from station 
to station until they reached Canada. 

.Under the Fugitive-Slave Act of 1850 more seizures were made 
than in all the previous sixty years. Thomas Sims (185 1) and 
Anthony Burns (1854) were carried back from Boston. A des- 
perate attempt was made to rescue Burns, and one man was killed. 
The files of armed soldiers who conveyed him to the wharf were 
greeted with mingled cheers, hisses, and groans, and they had to 
pass beneath a national flag draped in mourning and suspended, 
union down, across State Street. The determined resistance to 
the law made the cost of returning the fugitives something enor- 
mous. In several instances, notably that of *' Shadrach," in Boston 
(185 1), and "Jerry," in Syracuse, New York, the negroes were 

1 See Woodburn's Political Parties, 64. 



1852-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 405 

rescued ; and at Christiana, Pennsylvania, a slaveholder and his 
son were killed in their attempt to seize an alleged fugitive. These 
cases showed that it would be next to impossible to enforce the 
obnoxious act on a broad scale. 

417. <' Uncle Tom's Cabin"; Helper's "Impending Crisis"; 
the Hungarian Revolution. In the spring of 1852 two national 
political conventions, representing the two chief parties, met to 
take action. They solemnly pledged themselves to resist all 
attempts to renew the discussion of slavery " whenever, however, 
and wherever made." 

Just at that time Mrs. Stowe published " Uncle Tom's Cabin." 
She was an earnest advocate of antislavery principles, but not a 
declared Abolitionist. She bore no hatred to the South. She wrote 
rather in sorrow than in anger, her only object being, as she said, to 
make her countrymen " feel what an accursed thing slavery is." 

Garrison declared that her book " would take the world by 
storm." He was right. In eight weeks 100,000 copies were sold 
in the United States, and that was only the beginning; within a 
year a million copies were sold in England, and the story was soon 
translated into every European language. Mrs. Stowe's work was 
the direct fruit of the Fugitive-Slave Act, and it struck slavery a 
blow from which it never recovered. 

Five years later (1857), another remarkable book appeared on 
the same subject ; this was Helper's " Impending Crisis." The 
author was a North Carolinian and a " poor white." He did not 
profess to be a friend to the negro, but attacked slavery mainly on 
economic grounds. He dedicated his work to the " nonslave- 
holding whites " of the South ; his object was to show by solid 
facts and figures that the system paid no one except the " Lords 
of the Lash " who upheld it. He declared that the enforced labor 
of the black man was a curse to the section where it existed, espe- 
cially to the " poor whites." 

Helper's book had a very large sale, and three years later (i860) 
the Republican party circulated it by thousands as a campaign 
document. 



406 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1852 

It was during this period that Louis Kossuth endeavored to 
establish the independence of Hungary. American sympathy 
for Kossuth found expression in Webster's striking letter to 
Hiilsemann (1850), and in the grand reception given to the 
Hungarian patriot when he came to the United States as the 
nation's guest.^ 

418. National political conventions; the presidential election 
(1852). The Democratic National Convention (1852) adopted a 
"strict-construction" (§ 256) platform. It upheld the Kentucky 
and Virginia state sovereignty nuHification resolutions of 1792 and 
1798 (§ 273), and pledged the support of the party to the Com- 
promise Measures of 1850, and to the enforcement of the Fugitive- 
Slave Law (§§ 412, 414). The convention nominated Franklin 
Pierce, the second "dark horse" (§ 383), for President, and 
William R. King for Vice President. 

The Whig National Convention met soon afterward ; it adopted 
a carefully worded "broad-construction" (§ 256) platform, and 
accepted the Compromise Measures of 1850, with the Fugitive- 
Slave Law (§§ 412, 414). It passed by Webster and nominated 
General Scott (§ 396) for the presidency. The great New Eng- 
land statesman had hoped to secure the nomination, and he died 
broken-hearted a few months later. 

The Free-Soil Democratic National Convention adopted a plat- 
form which declared that the government has "no more power 
to make a slave than to make a king." It repudiated the Com- 
promise Measures of 1850, including the Fugitive-Slave Law 
(§§ 412, 414). It proclaimed : " No more slave states ; no slave 
territory ; no nationalized slavery ; and no national legislation for 
the extradition of slaves." The Free-Soilers nominated John P. 
Hale for the presidency. 

Pierce gained a sweeping victory. He received 254 electoral 
votes to 42 cast for Scott; the popular vote stood 1,601,474 
for Pierce, and 1,386,578 for Scott. Hale, the candidate of the 
Free-Soil Democrats, received a popular vote of 156,149. 

1 See Rhodes' United States, I, 205, 233. 



1852-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 407 

Before the year 1852 closed Calhoun, Webster, and Clay were 
in their graves. Sumner and Jefferson Davis were soon to stand 
face to face in the United States Senate as leading combatants 
in the "irrepressible conflict" between slavery and freedom. 

419. Rise of the *' Know-Nothing" party; death of the Whig 
party. Between 1 849 and 1 85 2 immigration (§374) had increased 
enormously, the arrivals at our ports averaging nearly a thousand 
a day. Hostility to the poHtical influence of this army of new 
settlers, and especially to all Roman Catholic foreigners, gave rise 
to a secret oath-bound fraternity which took for its watchword 
the cry, "Americans must rule America." This organization de- 
veloped into the political party (1852) of the "Order of United 
Americans." 

The members were popularly called " Know Nothings," because 
when questioned they invariably professed that they knew noth- 
ing of the party or its objects. The "Know Nothings" gener- 
ally selected their candidates from rival political tickets, and for 
some years they met with great success in state elections. They 
required that those for whom they voted should be native-born 
citizens ; that they should declare their entire devotion to the 
national and state constitutions ; and that they should explicitly 
disclaim allegiance to any " foreign prince, potentate, or power." 

They furthermore demanded " a continued residence of twenty- 
one years as an indispensable requisite for^ citizenship," and 
resolved that it was the duty of the national government to pro- 
hibit the landing of foreign paupers and criminals on our shores. 
The chief power of the American party was exerted between 
1850 and 1856; it then gradually declined. 

After the presidential election of 1852 the Whig party (§§ 256, 
341) went to pieces. It was humorously said that " it died of an 
effort to swallow the Fugitive-Slave Law." Many Whigs joined 
the "Know Nothings," and after the organization of the Repub- 
lican party (1854-185 6) great numbers were absorbed by it. 

420. Summary. The chief events of the Taylor and Fillmore 
administration were : (i) the discussion in Congress over the 



408 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1853 

admission of California as a free state ; (2) the adoption of Clay's 
Compromise Measures of 1850, including the application of the 
principle of " Squatter Sovereignty " and the passage of a new 
Fugitive-Slave Act ; (3) the enactment by some Northern States 
of "Personal Liberty Laws," and the publication of "LTncle 
Tom's Cabin" and Helper's '' Impending Crisis" ; (4) the death 
of three great pohtical leaders, Webster, Calhoun, and Clay, fol- 
lowed by the dechne and disappearance of the Whig party and by 
the rise of the short-Hved American, or '' Know-Nothing," party. 



Franklin Pierce (Democrat), One Term (185 3-1 857) 

421. Pierce's inaugural; the first American "World's Fair." 

In his inaugural address President Pierce (§ 418) spoke explicitly 
on the slavery question. He said, " I believe that involuntary 
servitude as it exists in different states of this Confederacy is 
recognized by the Constitution" (§415). "I hold that the 
laws of 1850, commonly called the 'Compromise Measures' 
(§§412, 414), are strictly constitutional, and to be unhesitat- 
ingly carried into effect." Later, in his first message, he de- 
clared that those measures " had restored a sense of repose and 
security to the public mind." Perhaps he owed this conviction 
to the fact that the slavery question had kept itself in the back- 
ground for a brief period while America took part in an inter- 
national exhibition. 

In the summer of 1853 the President opened the first "World's 
Fair " held in the United States, in the '* Crystal Palace," in New 
York. The foreign department was noted for its large and valu- 
able collection of works of art. The American department took 
the front rank in the variety of its wood-working machinery and 
agricultural implements. Nothing could equal the excellence of 
the work done by the improved planing machines, the lathes for 
turning gunstocks and similar irregular forms, and the machinery 
for manufacturing barrels, pails, and other hollow ware. 



1853-1854] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 409 

Our reapers and mowers (§ 366), horserakes, hay tedders, and 
"cultivators" had revolutionized farming. With one of these 
machines and the aid of a pair of horses a man could easily do 
the work of twenty-five hand laborers. Every summer these 
inventions saved enormous quantities of grass and grain which 
must otherwise have been lost for lack of men to harvest them. 
An acre of oats could be cut in less than half an hour, and an 
acre of hay spread in about the same time. 

Secretary Seward said that these agricultural implements were 
pushing the Kne of civiHzation westward at the rate of thirty 
miles a year. In that way they had a powerful influence on the 
economic progress of the American Republic. 

422. The Kansas-Nebraska BilL In the great debate on the 
Compromise Measures of 1850 (§412) Senator Stephen A. 
Douglas of IlHnois, popularly, known as the '' little giant of the 
^yest," successfully advocated the application of " Squatter Sov- 
ereignty " (§§410, 412) to New Mexico and Utah when they 
should be admitted as states. Douglas claimed that Clay's meas- 
ures of 1850 (§ 412) had repealed the Missouri Compromise of 
1 820 (§ 324). In January, 1854, while chairman of the Committee 
on Territories, he determined to make an effort to extend the 
principle of " Popular Sovereignty," as he called it, to the unor- 
ganized region comprised in the Louisiana purchase of 1803 
(§ 280). This section lay west of the states of Missouri, Iowa, 
and Minnesota territory. It was called the Platte, or Nebraska, 
Country. It was crossed by a wagon road to the Pacific, and as 
it was north of the Missouri Compromise line of 36° 30' (§ 324), 
slavery was "forever" excluded from it. It had been proposed 
that this country should be set apart as a reservation for the 
Indians. Douglas had long been trying to defeat that project 
and to have it erected into a territory in order that it might be 
opened to settlement. 

The bill,^ as Senator Douglas finally presented it (January 23, 
1854), provided that the Platte Country should be divided into 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 84-88. 



410 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1854 

two parts ; the northern portion, which lay west of the free state 
of Iowa, was to be organized as the territory of Nebraska, and 
the southern portionj lying west of the slave state of Missouri, 
was to be organized as the territory of Kansas. The fourteenth 
section of the bill repealed the Missouri Compromise (§ 324) 
by declaring it henceforth " inoperative and void." The avowed 
purpose of the Kansas- Nebraska Bill was " not to legislate slavery 
into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate 
their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
Constitution of the United States." 

A separate clause in the bill expressly provided that the 
Fugitive- Slave Act (§§412, 414) should be enforced in the two 
proposed territories. 

Senator Douglas declared that his sole object in advocating 
the measure was to take the discussion of the slavery question 
out of Congress and hand it over to the people of the states and 
territories for settlement. Such a policy, he believed, would 
preserve peace and maintain the Union in its integrity. 

423. Debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill; northern opposition. 
The proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise (§ 324) and 
to apply the principle of '' Popular Sovereignty" (§ 422) to Kan- 
sas and Nebraska startled the whole country like a thunderbolt 
from a clear sky. No bill was ever introduced into the Senate 
which gave rise to more excited debate.^ Sumner vehemently 
protested against the removal of the "landmarks of freedom." 
Wade raised his voice against giving slavery a chance to enter a 
territory "as large as all the free states, pure as Nature, and 
beautiful as the Garden of God." Benton denounced Douglas' 
proposition as a " see- saw bill, . . . the up-and-down game of 
politicians." Seward declared that the fate of the Republic hung 
on this measure. " Its success or defeat," said he, "will decide 
whether slavery shall go on increasing in influence over the cen- 
tral power here, or whether freedom shall gain the ascendency." 

1 See Rhodes' United States, I, 425-500; Johnston's American Orations, III, 3-50. 



1854] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 411 

Edward Everett presented a protest against the bill, signed by 
more than three thousand New England clergymen. The " Inde- 
pendent Democrats " in Congress drew up an appeal against the 
proposed law. Referring to the section which was intended to 
repeal the Missouri Compromise (§ 324), they denounced it as 
"a gross violation of a sacred pledge," and as part of *' an atro- 
cious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region immigrants 
from the old world and free laborers from our own states, and 
convert it into a dreary region of despotism inhabited by masters 
and slaves." Chase, Sumner, Giddings, and Gerrit Smith joined 
in signing the paper. 

424. Southern feeling about the bilL The southern members 
of Congress at first manifested little interest in the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill. Bell of Tennessee said that every southern sen- 
ator with whom he had spoken, excepting Toombs of Georgia, 
regretted this attempt to wipe out a line which had preserved the 
peace of the country for thirty years. He added, however, that 
since the North had introduced the bill, the South would not vote 
against it. Houston of Texas implored the Senate, for the sake 
of the Union, not to repeal the Missouri Compromise. Cullom 
of Tennessee declared that its repeal would repudiate " the faith 
and honor of the South, plighted by the act of 1820." 

But Jefferson Davis and Senator Toombs, representing the 
extreme class popularly known as " fire eaters," condemned the 
Missouri Compromise as unjust to the South. They, with Alex- 
ander H. Stephens, welcomed its repeal by a bill which virtually 
denied the power of Congress to legislate respecting slavery in 
the territories. They insisted that the Constitution gave slave- 
holders, in common with other owners of property, the right to 
take their negroes into any part of the public domain ; then, 
when the settlers framed a state constitution, they could decide 
whether it should be slave or free. 

425. Seward's attitude; excitement at the North; passage of 
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill (1854) ; results. When it became 
apparent that a majority of southern members would vote for 



412 



THK STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1854 



the bill, Seward exclaimed : " Come on then, gentlemen of the 
slave states, since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept 
it in behalf of the cause of freedom. We will engage in com- 
petition for the soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the 
side which is stronger in numbers as in right." The debate on 
the bill raged for nearly five months. During that time the 
North was seething with indignation, and mass meeting after 




'^ I ^ ■S ^ V,MINNESOTA 



I INDIAN Y 







b '^ ■ 



Territory opened to Slavery by the Kansas-Nebraska 
Act of 1854 

The " Compromise Measures " of 1850 opened Utah and New Mexico to slavery 
when they should be admitted as states (see § 422), Oregon was free territory 
by act of Congress of 1848 (see § -591) 

mass meeting protested against the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise Act (§ 324). 

The opponents of Senator Douglas branded him as an enemy 
to the cause of freedom and of free soil. The demonstrations 
against him were so violent that he said, " I could travel from 
Boston to Chicago by the light of my own burning effigies." The 
bill passed the House (May 22, 1854) by a vote of 113 to 100; 



1854-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 413 

Douglas closed the great debate in the Senate by a speech which 
lasted until the small hours of the morning. The bill was then 
passed without division (May 26, 1854) by a vote of 35 to 13. 
The southern Democrats and Whigs voted for it; half of the 
northern Democrats were for it and half against it; while the 
northern Whigs and Free-Soilers all opposed it. The President 
strongly favored the bill and promptly signed it (May 30, 1854). 
The opponents of the measure condemned it as the greatest 
political blunder in American history. 

In the autumn Douglas spoke at Peoria, Illinois, in defense of 
his bill. Referring to his opponents, he said sarcastically, " The 
white people of Nebraska are good enough to govern themselves, 
but they are not good enough to govern a few miserable negroes." 
Lincoln replied, " No man is good enough to govern another man 
without that other's consent."^ 

The new Congress that met the next year (1855) held the 
stormiest session ever recorded. The struggle to elect a Speaker 
lasted nine weeks ; members ate and slept at their desks. Banks 
of Massachusetts had said in a recent speech that rather than do 
anything to extend slavery he would let the Union " sKde." ^ His 
election to the Speakership was therefore regarded as a victory of 
the free states over the consolidated power of the slave states. 
Blaine in his "Twenty Years of Congress" says, " It marked an 
epoch." 

The Kansas- Nebraska Act had three momentous results : (i) By 
repealing the Missouri Compromise Act (§ 324) and establish- 
ing the principle of "Popular Sovereignty" (§422) in the two 
Territories north of 36° 30' it opened a new battle ground between 
the forces of slavery and freedom. (2) It gave -the finishing 
blow to the expiring Whig party (§ 419), and shaped the wedge 
which later (i860) spHt the Democratic party into a northern 
and a southern section; the first upheld "Popular Sovereignty"; 
the second was determined, at any cost, to force slavery into 

1 See Lincoln's Works, 1, 195. 

2 See Von Hoist's Constitutional History of the United States, V^. 215. 



414 'AHE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1854- 

all the territories. (3) It united all " anti-Nebraska " men at 
the North in a new political organization which subsequently 
(1856) took the name of the Republican party. The Repub- 
licans, unlike the Democrats or the Whigs, had no adherents at 
the South. They were sectional in the sense that freedom was 
sectional, and they pledged themselves to use all constitutional 
means to prevent the extension of slavery. 

426. The six years' struggle for Kansas^ (1854-1859); "Sons 
of the South" against "Free-State men." No sooner was the 
Kansas-Nebraska Bill signed (§ 425) than companies of "Sons of 
the South " rushed in to seize the territory and open it to slavery. 
The planters of Missouri engaged in this movement as an act of 
self-preservation. They held nearly 100,000 negroes, and they 
believed that if Kansas should enter the Union as a free state 
their human property would speedily take to its legs and cross 
the border. Senator Atchison of Missouri said that a horde of 
western savages would be less formidable neighbors than a popu- 
lation of Abolitionists. The proslavery men who entered the 
territory at once took possession of large tracts of land and 
planted the towns of Atchison, Leavenworth, and Lecompton. 
They warned intending emigrants from the free states not to 
endeavor to enter Kansas through Missouri. 

'l^he " Free-State men " acted with equal energy. In expec- 
tation of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Eli Thayer 
of Massachusetts organized the *' New England Emigrant Aid 
Society " to send out colonists to Kansas. This society received 
the hearty encouragement of Amos A. Lawrence of Boston and 
other prominent eastern men, who helped to furnish it with the 
'* sinews of war." The society dispatched the first band of emi- 
grants in the summer of 1854. The total number sent out by 
them in the course of the crusade was about three thousand, — 
all men, and voters ; before they reached Kansas this number 
was probably doubled. The pioneer colony from Boston planted 
the town of Lawrence ; subsequently bands of " Free-State men " 
1 See Rhodes' United States, II, 98-166, 215, 278-299. 



1854-1855] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 415 

planted Topeka and Osawatomie. Henry Ward Be'echer declared 
that in a contest with the slaveholders of Kansas the New Eng- 
lander's rifle was a greater moral agency than the Bible. 

These settlers from the East were strongly opposed to the spread 
of slavery, but they had no intention of attacking it in the states 
where it was already established. Garrison's Liberator (§353), 
speaking of the New England emigrants, said that " hardly a 
single Abolitionist could be found among all who went." 

But among those who emigrated from New York and Ohio 
there were at least six Abolitionists of the most radical stamp. 
One of them was destined to make his name and exploits known 
throughout the world. These six men were John Brown, a 
descendant of Pilgrim stock, and his five sons. They settled in 
or near Osawatomie, and " Old John Brown," as he was famil- 
iarly called, soon became a power in that region. He went out, 
gun in hand, determined, as he said, to " kill American slavery." 

The " Sons of the South" denounced the "Free- State men" 
as *' Black Repubhcans " ; the " Free-State men " retorted by 
calling their adversaries '' Border Ruffians." The excited feeling 
naturally led to acts of violence which threatened to end in 
bloodshed. 

427. The Kansas elections ; the rival constitutions ; Congres- 
sional report. At the first election of a delegate to Congress 

(1854) a large force of Missourians armed with rifles and bowie 
knives entered the Territory and elected a proslavery candidate. 
The next spring (1855) a second body of Missourians, five thou- 
sand strong, led by Senator Atchison, crossed the border into 
Kansas and elected a Territorial Legislature, which not only 
adopted the entire slave code of Missouri but strengthened it by 
the addition of numerous death penalties. 

The Free-State settlers repudiated this "bogus legislation," 
and elected an antislavery delegate to Congress. In the autumn 

(1855) they held a convention at Topeka, framed a state consti- 
tution prohibiting slavery, set up a rival government, and applied 
for admission to the L^nion, but without success. Then the 



4l6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1855-1856 

Proslavery party met at Pawnee and framed a state constitution 
to suit themselves ; but the people of the Territory rejected it. 

The next year (1856) Congress sent out a special committee 
of three (W. W. Howard of Michigan, John Sherman of Ohio, 
and Mordecai Oliver of Missouri) to investigate the Kansas 
troubles. The first two members of the committee reported : 
(i) that the Territorial elections had been "carried by organized 
invasions from the state of Missouri"; (2) "that the alleged 
Territorial (proslavery) Legislature was an illegally constituted 
body" ; (3) that no delegate to Congress had been elected " in 
pursuance of law"; (4) that in the present condition of the 
Territory a fair election could not be held unless " United States 
troops" should be present "at every place of election." The 
third member of the committee made a separate report dissenting 
from that of the majority.-' 

Meanwhile four governors of the Territory had resigned. They 
went out as proslavery men, but their experiences in Kansas had 
converted them to " Free-State men." 

428. Civil War in Kansas. The national government sent 
out troops to guard the polls, but civil war broke out. The 
greater part of the actual settlers desired peace, but bands of 
marauders — Free-State " Jayhawkers " and Slave-State "Border 
Ruffians" — burned farmhouses, broke up settlements, pillaged 
towns, and committed numerous murders. One act of violence 
provoked another until the Territory became, in sober truth, 
" Bleeding Kansas." Lawrence was twice besieged and once 
burned ; Osawatomie, Pottawatomie, and Leavenw^orth were 
attacked and partially destroyed. Each side suffered; each 
made the other suffer. The motto was, " War to the knife and 
the knife to the hilt." 

" Old John Brown " shot or cut down a number of proslavery 
men in cold blood at Pottawatomie (1856) and made raids into 
Missouri for the purpose of liberating negroes. The other side 
retaliated with interest and killed two to one in the massacre at 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 90. 



1S56-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 417 

Marais des Cygnes (1858). But this last outrage was an isolated 
act, and fortunately this frightful state of anarchy was practically 
over by 1857. The "Free-State men" had come to stay; and 
as they gradually increased in numbers, they obtained the politi- 
cal control and rejected the proslavery constitution^ framed 
(1857) by a convention at Lecompton and recommended to 
Congress by Buchanan.^ 

Stephen A. Douglas denounced the action of this convention 
in a powerful speech in the Senate. He said : " It is none of 
my business which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not 
whether it is voted down or voted up ; . . . but if this Lecompton 
constitution is to be forced down our throats in violation of the 
fimdamental principle of free government, ... I will resist it 
to the last." ^ 

The next year a Free-State Convention met at Wyandotte 
(July 5, 1859) and adopted a new constitution, which prohibited 
slavery. This was ratified by the people, and w^as later (1861) 
accepted by a Congress from which the southern members had 
withdrawn to engage in that stupendous civil war destined to 
overthrow slavery forever. Out of her population of 100,000 
Kansas contributed no less than 20,000 men to the ranks of the 
Union army. 

429. Assault on Senator Sumner, ^^'hile the western troubles 
were at their height Senator Sumner delivered a powerful speech 
in Congress (May 19, 20, 1856) on the " Crime against Kansas." ^ 
He denounced the "tyranny, imbecility, absurdity, and infamy" 
of those who were endeavoring to fasten negro bondage on the 
free soil of western territories. In the course of his speech he 
attacked Senator Butler of South Carolina, and held him up to 
ridicule as a half-crazed old man completely infatuated with the 
charms of slavery. 



1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 92. 

2 See Rhodes' United States, II, 285, 291. 

3 See Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, II, 124. 

4 See Johnston's American Orations, III, 88, 



4l8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [185&- 

Two days later, Preston S. Brooks, a nephew of Senator Butler 
and a representative from South Carolina, made an assault on 
Sumner while he was sitting at his desk in the Senate chamber. 
Brooks struck him blow after blow over the head with a loaded 
cane until his victim fell senseless and bleeding to the floor. 
Senator Sumner's injuries were so serious that he had to withdraw 
from political life for several years. 

Massachusetts kept his seat for him in the Senate until he 
resumed it (1859), not long before the outbreak of the Civil 
War. Brooks resigned, but was presented with a new cane by his 
admiring constituents, and was triumphantly reelected. Jefferson 
Davis warmly commended Brooks, but Seward said, "The blows 
that fell on the head of the senator from Massachusetts have done 
more for the cause of human freedom than all its friends have 
ever accomplished in Congress." 

430. Treaties with Japan and China ; the Ostend Manifesto. 
While the Kansas question was agitating the whole country our 
foreign relations had an important bearing on the policy and 
welfare of the nation. 

Under the previous administration Commodore Perry was sent 
out in command of a squadron to endeavor to negotiate a treaty 
with Japan. The ports of that " Land of Great Peace," once 
partially open to the Dutch, had been closed to the entire world 
for more than two centuries. Perry succeeded in reopening the 
barred doors, and by his tact, firmness, and diplomatic skill 
secured a favorable treaty (1854). 

This treaty prepared the way for full international intercourse 
with the foremost people of the East, and led to a treaty of com- 
merce (1858). Japan is now proud to acknowledge that she owes 
her recent remarkable progress in western civilization and her 
present position among Oriental nations in great measure to Perry's 
success and to the introduction of American inventions and 
American educational influences. Fourteen years later, Anson 
Burlingame negotiated (1868) an important treaty with China, 
under which that nation for the first time officially accepted the 
principles of international law. 



1854-1856] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 419 

The failure of the South to secure fresh territory for slavery 
extension on the Pacific Coast (§§411, 414) led to attempts, 
on their part, to get possession of Cuba. Filibustering expedi- 
tions sailed from New Orleans (1850, 1851) for the purpose of 
exciting a revolution in that island ; they accomplished nothing, 
however, but their own destruction. Fillmore, who was then 
President, issued a proclamation condemning these "wicked 
schemes" and warning citizens of the United States against taking 
part in them. Later, the government endeavored to purchase 
the much-coveted island, but all offers were rejected. Meanwhile 
reports were circulated that the Cuban negroes were plotting to 
establish a free black Republic on the plan of San Domingo. 
This rumor made the South all the more anxious to get posses- 
sion of a country that might otherwise become a menace to slave- 
holders in the cotton states. 

James Buchanan, our minister to England, met with our min- 
isters to France and Spain at Ostend (1854) to discuss the ques- 
tion of the acquisition of Cuba. They united in signing the 
Ostend Manifesto.^ They declared in that document that if 
Spain persisted in her refusal to sell Cuba, and if our peace 
should thereby be endangered, we should be justified by every 
law, human and divine, in seizing the island. 

431. National presidential conventions; the election (1856). 
The "Know-Nothing" party (§419) held their National Con- 
vention early in 1856. The delegates adopted a platform which 
declared that none but Americans should rule America, and 
demanded that foreigners should be refused naturalization until 
they had resided in the United States for twenty-one years. 
The only plank in the platform relating to slavery was one which 
condemned the repeal of the Missouri Compromise (§ 425). 
The convention nominated Millard Fillmore for President. 

The Democratic Convention met in June (1856). It adopted 
a "strict-construction" (§ 256) platform, reaffirmed its indorse- 
ment of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1 798-1 799 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 89. 



420 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1856- 

(§§273, 418), denounced the principles of the ''Know-Noth- 
ing" party, pledged itself to resist all agitation of the slavery 
question "in Congress or out of it," indorsed the Fugitive- Slave 
Law and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (§ 425), asked for the con- 
struction of military and postal roads to the Pacific, and declared 
that the United States must control the highway across the Isth- 
mus of Panama. The convention nominated James Buchanan, 
our late minister to England (§430), for the presidency. 

The Republican party (§ 425) led by Seward held their con- 
vention about midsummer (1856). The delegates adopted a 
*' broad-construction" (§ 256) platform. They approved of the 
government's encouraging ''internal improvements" (§285), 
especially the building of a railroad to the Pacific. They de- 
nounced the Ostend Manifesto (§ 430) as " the highwayman's plea 
that ' might makes right ' "; they strongly condemned the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise (§425) and urged the prompt admis- 
sion of Kansas (§428) as a free state. 

They took decided ground with respect to the power of the 
national government over the territories, resolving that it was 
both " the right and the duty of Congress " to prohibit " those 
twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery," throughout 
the national domain. For President they nominated John C. 
Fremont (§ 400). His nomination was condemned by his oppo- 
nents as a purely sectional act, — one in which the free states 
alone were interested. Rufus Choate denounced the Republicans 
as " the new geographical party," and added that their success 
would put " the Union in danger," Governor Wise and other 
leading men at the South openly declared that Fremont's election 
would cause "certain and immediate disunion." . 

The Whigs, in an expiring effort, issued a platform which con- 
demned all "geographical parties," but which said nothing about 
slavery. They nominated Millard Fillmore (§ 414) for President. 

The Democrats elected James Buchanan President, with J. C. 
Breckenridge Vice President. The electoral vote stood 174 for 
Buchanan to 114 for Fremont and 8 for Fillmore; the popular 



1857] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 421 

vote stood 1,838,169 for Buchanan to 1,341,264 for Fremont 
and 874,534 for Fillmore. 

432. Summary. The prmcipal events of Pierce's administra- 
tion were : (i) the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repeal- 
ing the Missouri Compromise and applying the principle of 
"Popular Sovereignty" to the settlement of the question of slav- 
ery extension in those territories; (2) the struggle between the 
North and the South for the possession of Kansas ; (3) the rise 
of the Repubhcan party ; (4) the opening of the first American 
World's Fair, the treaty with Japan, the attempts of the govern- 
ment to purchase Cuba, and the Ostend Manifesto. 



James Buchanan (Democrat), One Term (18 5 7-1 861) 

433. The Dred Scott Case. Two days after Buchanan's (§ 431) 
inauguration the Supreme Court of the United States delivered 
its decision (March 6, 1857) in the celebrated Dred Scott case. 

Scott was a negro slave living in the slave state of Missouri. 
His master took him with him to Illinois (1834), and, after 
residing there for two years, removed with his property to the 
territory then called L^pper Louisiana, — now Minnesota. Two 
years later (1838), Scott's owner took him back to Missouri and 
there sold him to a Mr. Sandford. 

Scott denied Sandford's legal right to hold him in bondage and 
brought suit for his liberty in the Circuit Court of the L^nited 
States for the district of Missouri. He took the ground that his 
residence in the free state of Illinois, and in a territory in which 
slavery w^as expressly prohibited by the Missouri Compromise Act 
(§ 324), had made him a free man. 

The Court decided in Sandford's favor ; thereupon Scott carried 
the case by appeal to the Supreme Court of the L^nited States. 

434. Decision of the United States Supreme Court. ^ That tri- 
bunal, five of whose judges were from slave states, undertook to 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 91 ; Rhodes' United States, II, 251 ; Nico- 
lay and Hay's Lincoln, II, ch. iv, v ; Howard's Report of the Dred Scott Decision. 



422 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1857 

pass judgment on two questions : (i) Is Dred Scott a citizen of 
the United States, and as such entitled to bring suit in the 
United States courts ? (2) Did Scott's residence for several 
years on free soil render him free ? 

In dehvering the decision of the Court, Chief Justice Taney, 
who had been a slaveholder, but had freed his slaves, took occasion 
to review the history of the negro race in America. He declared 
that when the Constitution of the United States was adopted 
" negroes had no rights which the white man was bound to 
respect." " It is absolutely certain," said he, *' that the African 
race was not included under the name of citizens of a state by 
the framers of the Constitution." 

Coming to the first of the questions under consideration, the 
Court decided that " Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri 
within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and 
not entitled as such to sue in its courts." The delivery of this 
opinion really ended the case, but the Court now took up the 
second question which had been raised, namely, Scott's claim 
to freedom because he had resided for a time in a free state and 
later in a free territory. On this point it decided (i) that Scott 
did not acquire freedom by his residence in Illinois ; and (2) 
" that the act of Congress (of 1820) which prohibited a citizen 
from holding and owning" slaves " in the territory of the United 
States north of the line (36° 30') therein mentioned is not war- 
ranted by the Constitution, and is therefore void." 

The eight associate justices, with the exception of Judge 
Curtis ^ of Massachusetts and Judge McLean of Pennsylvania, 
concurred in the opinion delivered by the Chief Justice. 



1 In his very able dissenting opinion, Judge Curtis held that the political history 
of the country proved: (1) that when the Constitution was adopted free negroes, 
though born of slave parents, had in numerous cases possessed the full rights of 
citizens of the United States ; (2) that in no less than eight distinct instances 
(1787-1848) Congress had excluded slavery from the territory of the United States; 
(3) that slavery, being contrary to national right, is created only by municipal law, 
and that the Constitution does not provide for its existence in the territories. See 
Rhodes' United States, II, 257-260. 




423 



424 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1857- 

435. Effect of the Dred Scott Decision. This decision, which 
was as much political as judicial, pronounced by the highest 
tribunal of the nation, created consternation at the North. The 
most that the Kansas- Nebraska Act (§422) had done was to 
throw open a certain limited territory to slavery, provided a 
majority of the inhabitants desired it; but now the Supreme 
Court of the United States solemnly declared that every slave- 
holder at the South had the same constitutional right to take his 
negroes into any part of the public domain that he had to take 
his horses or his cattle there (§ 322). 

The Senate ordered 20,000 copies of Chief Justice Taney's 
opinion to be printed for general circulation. Senator Douglas 
stumped Illinois, and in his defense of Taney said that the 
Republicans wanted to vote with the negroes, eat with the 
negroes, and marry the negroes. Lincoln replied, " In some 
respects the negro is not my equal, but in his natural right to eat 
the bread he earns with his own hands without asking leave of 
any one he is my equal and the equal of all others." 

A great number of the people of the free states now became 
convinced that " party spirit had taken possession of the Court in 
the interest of slavery." Seward boldly declared, '' We shall 
reorganize the Court and thus reform its political sentiments." 
Many persons expressed the fear that the supreme tribunal of the 
country was preparing to affirm that negro bondage was not local 
but national. This conviction added enormously to the strength 
of the newly organized Republican party (§425), which pledged 
itself to resist all encroachments of the slave power on free soil 
(§§ 425, 431). On the other hand, the exultant South found in 
the hostile attitude of this army of northern voters fresh justifica- 
tion for threats of disunion. 

Later (1859), the Senate of the United States indorsed the Dred 
Scott decision by a vote of 35 to 21. Thus encouraged, the Ter- 
ritory of New Mexico proceeded to establish slavery (§412) 
although Webster had ridiculed the idea as impossible (§413). 
Furthermore, the decision stimulated the illicit importation of 



1857] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 425 

negroes to such an extent that Stephen A. Douglas said there was 
evidence that no less than 15,000 kidnapped Africans had been 
smuggled into southern ports in 1858.^ The general effect of the 
Dred Scott decision was to embolden those who advocated slavery 
extension, but to irritate and alarm the friends of freedom, and to 
widen the breach between North and South. 

436. The financial panic of 1857. To add to the excitement 
caused by political questions, a financial panic ^ now swept over 
the country. In August (1857) the " Ohio Life and Trust Com- 
pany " of Cincinnati failed for $7,000,000. An investigation 
showed that the managers had lost the entire capital in stock 
gambling. The failure compelled many banks in New York to 
suddenly reduce their loans ; this caused a general financial 
crash. Business was in great measure paralyzed, and, with three 
exceptions, the banks throughout the country suspended specie 
payments. Many great railway and manufacturing corporations 
found it impossible to meet their obligations ; cotton dropped 
from sixteen cents a pound to nine ; and the receipts of the 
national government fell below its expenditures. 

The panic spread and ^' a wave of bankruptcy swept round the 
civilized world." Well qualified judges believed that it was 
caused by overspeculation resulting from the enormous produc- 
tion of gold by the mines of California and Australia. On the 
other hand, Senator Blaine, and the protectionists generally, main- 
tained that the chief cause of the panic was the reduction of reve- 
nue resulting from the lowered tariffs of 1846 and 1857 (§ 404). 
But though the crisis was sharp, it was short, and so far as the 
United States was concerned, it was only " a bad stumble in a 
career of great prosperity." The country generally was in a sound 
condition and the crops were abundant. This favorable condition 
of things enabled the banks to resume specie payments before the 
end of the year, but while business recovered in considerable 
measure, long years of depression continued. 

1 See Rhodes' United States, II, 369 ; Du Bois' African Slave Trade. 

2 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 262. 



426 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1859- 

437. Discovery of silver, petroleum, and natural gas. While the 
country was recovering from the effects of the financial depres- 
sion a remarkable discovery was made (1859) on the eastern 
slope of the Sierras, in what is now the state of Nevada. Some 
miners digging in that region came to a layer of strange-looking 
earth. A bystander, named Comstock, exclaimed when he saw it, 
*' You have struck it, boys ! " They had, in fact, struck what proved 
to be the great " Bonanza " silver mines. Comstock controlled the 
only spring of water which could be used for working the mines ; 
for this reason he was admitted to share in the good luck. 

Up to this time no silver worth mentioning had been found 
in the United States ; but in the course of the next twenty years 
( 1 859-1 879) ore to the amount of more than $300,000,000 was 
taken from the Comstock lode. 

Nevada, however, was not to remain our only source of supply 
for silver. Rich deposits of that metal were discovered (1876) 
at Leadville, Colorado, and later in Utah and Arizona. 

By 1873 the world's output of silver had doubled in quantity. 
Twenty years later, the total product had risen from an average 
of less than $38,000,000 in 1859 to more than $198,000,000 in 
1892, — an increase of over four hundred per cent. In 1859 
the United States contributed to this output only the compara- 
tively insignificant sum of $100,000; in 1892 (the year of the 
largest yield from our mines) it contributed more than $82,000,- 
000. In 1859 the average market price of bar silver was nearly 
$1.25 per ounce; by 1892 it had fallen to less than 80 cents 
per ounce. 

The same summer (1859) that the ** Bonanza " mines were 
found a remarkable discovery was made in western Pennsyl- 
vania. Professor Silliman of Yale University had suggested the 
practicability of using petroleum as an illuminator, and a com- 
pany was formed to bore wells for it. " Colonel " E. L. Drake 
bored well after well with no better result than to sink the capital 
of the company that employed him and his own funds besides. 
His money and credit were both exhausted, and no one cared 



1859-J THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 427 

to trust this *' petroleum crank," as he was called, for even a 
sack of flour. 

On the morning of August 28, 1859, Drake went back to his 
work near Titusville hungry and penniless. That morning he 
" struck oil." Wild speculation followed his success ; thousands 
of wells were bored in all parts of the " oil-creek " region, some 
of which yielded from 100 to 2000 barrels of petroleum a day. 

Oil was afterward found in Kentucky, West Virginia, New York, 
Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Texas, and on the Pacific coast. 

In 1865 the "pipe-line" system of conveying oil from the 
wells was begun on a small scale. Since then about 25,000 miles 
of pipe have been laid. Petroleum is now carried in this way as 
far east as New York and as far west as Chicago. These rivers 
of oil not only supply the enormous home demand but furnish 
enough for exportation besides, the value of the quantity sent 
abroad during the last thirty-five years averaging more than 
$45,000,000 annually, and the total export value from 1864 to 
1904 exceeding $1,500,000,000. 

About fifteen years after the discovery of petroleum a well of 
natural gas was struck near Pittsburg. The escaping gas ran to 
waste for a number of years before capitalists could be induced 
to invest in it. The gas has since been found in Indiana and 
some other parts of the West, and it is used to furnish light, heat, 
and power in houses and manufacturing establishments, and for 
street lamps in some cities. 

438. The "Mormon rebellion"; the Mountain Meadows mas- 
sacre; Kansas; Yancey's " Scarlet Letter." Three years after the 
Mormons settled in Salt Lake Valley (§ 372), Congress organized 
the Territory of LTtah (1850) and President Fillmore appointed 
Brigham Young governor. He declared in a public discourse 
(1853) that he would continue to hold the ofifice, in spite of any 
orders to the contrary, until the Almighty should say, " Brigham, 
you need not be governor any longer." 

;rhe federal judges in L^tah accused the Mormon leaders of 
obstructing the administration of justice and of burning the court 



428 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1858- 

records. The Mormons retorted that the judges were men of 
corrupt character. President Buchanan appointed (1857) Alfred 
Gumming, a " Gentile," to supersede Young, and sent General 
Harney with 2500 troops to sustain the authority of the new 
governor. 

The Mormons attacked Harney's wagon trains, destroyed a 
large part of his supphes, and prevented the troops from enter- 
ing the valley until the spring of 1858. 

In another quarter Bishop Lee and several other Mormons led 
a band of Indians against a party of emigrants who were crossing 
Utah on their way to California and massacred them at Moun- 
tain Meadows (1857). Twenty years later, Lee was arrested and 
convicted of having taken a prominent part in the massacre. He 
confessed his guilt and was executed (1877) o^^ the very spot 
where the crime was perpetrated. 

When Harney's " Army of Utah " entered Salt Lake Valley 
(1858) they found the "city of the saints" deserted. Had the 
troops attempted to occupy the Mormon " Zion," Brigham Young 
would have burned it, as the Russians did Moscow when Napo- 
leon captured it. In this dilemma President Buchanan decided 
to issue a proclamation of pardon to the Mormons on condition 
that they should obey the federal laws, and Governor Gumming 
persuaded the inhabitants of Salt Lake City to return ; thus the 
threatened war was averted. 

But though the outbreak in LTtah was settled, the Kansas 
troubles, described earlier (§ 428), dragged on. Buchanan threw 
his influence on the side of making it a slave state (§§428, 439) ; 
but it was not until Minnesota (1858) and Oregon (1859) had 
entered the Union that Kansas was admitted (1861) as the thirty- 
fourth state, with a free state constitution. 

While these events were occurring in the West the excitement 
over slavery in the South showed no signs of abating. WilHam L. 
Yancey, one of the leaders of the Alabama slaveholders, published 
(1858) his famous '' Scarlet Letter," foreshadowing secession. He 
urged the organization of " committees of safety " to " fire the 



iffis-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 429 

southern heart," and at "the proper moment" to "precipitate 
the cotton states into a revolution." Later, Jefferson Davis told 
the people of his own state that if an Abolitionist should be 
chosen President in i860, they ought to provide for their safety 
" outside the LTnion." 

439. The Lincoln-Douglas campaign and joint debates.^ In the 
summer of 1858 the Republicans of Illinois nominated Abraham 
Lincoln (§ 394) as their candidate for United States senator. 
Lincoln's opponent was Stephen A. Douglas (§ 422), the great 
champion of " Popular Sovereignty." Judge Douglas, whose term 
in the Senate was about to expire, had the enthusiastic support 
of the Democratic party in his state. He had also gained many 
warm friends among the Republicans by the prominent stand he 
had taken in defeating the Lecompton, or proslavery, constitu- 
tion (§ 428), which he accused the administration of attempting 
to force upon the people of Kansas.^ 

In such a political duel for office the " little giant of the 
West" (§ 422) seemed to possess every advantage. More than 
this, Lincoln made an opening speech at Springfield (June 16, 
1858), which most of his warmest friends condemned as suicidal. 
He began by bringing the slavery question directly to the front. 
" 'A house divided against itself,' " said he, " ' cannot stand.' I 
believe this government cannot permanently endure half slave and 
half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, I do not 
expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be 
divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." ^ 

In his reply Douglas said, " Lincoln goes for a war of sec- 
tions until one or the other shall be subdued ; I go for the great 

1 See Rhodes' United States, II, 313-339 ; Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, II, ch. viii, 
ix ; Brown's Life of Stephen A. Douglas. 

2 At the next Congress (1859-1860) two Democratic members of the House accused 
the President of having corruptly attempted to secure their votes for the Lecompton 
bill. A committee, with Covode of Pennsylvania as chairman, investigated the charge. 
The Republican majority on that committee found the President guilty; the Demo- 
cratic minority found nothing against him. No action was taken on the report. This 
was known as the " Covode Investigation." 

3 See Johnston's American Orations, III, 168, 



430 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i858- 

principle of the Kansas- Nebraska Bill (§ 422), — the right of the 
people to decide for themselves." ^ 

Later in the summer, Lincoln challenged Douglas to meet him 
in a series of seven joint debates held out of doors. The people 
of Illinois turned out by tens of thousands to enjoy this gladia- 
torial contest. They greeted the combatants with bonfires, music, 
and the wildest demonstrations of delight. 

At Freeport, Lincoln, hoping to corner his antagonist between 
the Dred Scott decision and " Popular Sovereignty," which were 
apparently utterly opposed to each other, asked the question, 
Can the people of a territory in any lawful way, against the wish 
of any citizen of the L^nited States, exclude slavery prior to the 
formation of a state constitution? Douglas, true to "Popular 
Sovereignty," answered, Yes.'-^ This reply pleased the North, but 
angered the South, which ardently upheld the Dred Scott decision 
(§§ 434, 435). Douglas secured the senatorship, but lost the 
southern vote for the presidency in i860. Lincoln had fallen in 
the race, but he had fallen up hill, not down, and when he rose 
he was on the path to the White House. 

Late in October (1858), Senator Seward spoke at Rochester 
on the struggle between freedom and slavery. He declared it 
"an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces." 
" It means," said he, " that the Ignited States must and will become 
either entirely a slaveholding nation or an entirely free-labor 
nation." ^ These last words seemed an echo of Lincoln's famous 
speech made several months earlier (§ 439). 

440. The John Brown raid (1859). •* The next year the whole 
country was startled by the report that John Brown, — " Old John 

1 See Johnston's American Orations, III, 184. 

^ In his reply Douglas virtually admitted that the Dred Scott decision (§§ 434, 
435) carried slavery into the territories independent of the will of the people ; but 
he contended that slavery could not continue to exist there, even for an hour, unless 
supported by local legislation. Hence, he said, the whole question really rested with 
the majority of the settlers in the territories, since they could vote it down or up. This 
reply constituted what became known as the " Freeport Doctrine." 

8 See Johnston's American Orations, III, 195. 

4 See Rhodes' United States. II. 384-416. 



1859] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 431 

Brown of Osawatomie " ($ 426), — with eighteen followers, had 
captured (October 16, 1859) the arsenal and engine house at 
Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Two days later, the news came that 
Colonel Robert E. Lee (^ 39 7), ^Mth a com]>any of marines, 
had taken Brown and several of his companions prisoners, but 
only after a hard fight in which a number of persons had been 
killed. 

The attack on Harpers Ferry was not a sudden impulse, but 
the result of a long-meditated plan. Brown had resolved to strike 
American slavery a fatal blow, and he struck it in the state where 
it originated (^44). (xerrit Smith of New Vork and a few Massa- 
chusetts Abolitionists reluctantly furnished the funds and the arms 
for the rash expedition which they spoke of among themselves as 
" a little speculation in wool." 

On his trial Brown was convicted of treason and murder. He 
declared that he had not intended to commit either crime, but 
only " to free slaves." " Stonewall " Jackson commanded a mili- 
tary company on guard at Brown's execution (1859). '' He 
behaved," said he, " with unflinching firmness." " I sent up the 
petition that he might be saved." 

Six of Brown's followers were executed later. Emerson spoke 
of John Brown as " that new saint " who " will make the gallows 
glorious like the cross"; but Lincoln and the Republican party 
generally strongly condemned the Harpers Ferry invasion. 

The affair threw the South into an uproar. When Congress 
assembled ex-President Tyler of Virginia said, " But one senti- 
ment pervades the country, — security /// f/ie Union or separation." 

A Senate Committee reported that the invasion "was simply 
the act of lawless ruffians under the sanction of no public or 
])olitical authority " ; but notwithstanding that assurance, the 
gulf between North and South appeared to have widened. Just 
before his execution John Brown declared that the negro ques- 
tion could never be settled save by the " shedding of blood." 
He was right ; in less than two years after his death at Charles- 
town, Virginia (now West Virginia), a Massachusetts regiment. 



432 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I86O- 

on its way to the defense of the ITnion, marched through that 

place (1862) singing : 

John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave, 
But his soul goes marching on. 

441. The national political conventions of i860. Near the end 
of February, i860, Lincoln dehvered his Cooper Institute address 
in New York. In opposition to Douglas, he contended that "our 
fathers who framed the original Constitution" of the United States 
gave the federal government full power to control slavery in the ter- 
ritories.^ Not quite two months later, the Democratic Convention 
met at Charleston, South Carolina, and adopted a platform reaf- 
firming the principles laid down in their platform of 1856 (§ 431), 
thus indorsing " Popular Sovereignty " (§ 422), thereby fully recog- 
nizing " the right of the people of all the territories" " to form a 
constitution with or without domestic slavery." The southern dele- 
gates hoped that the convention would explicitly sustain the Dred 
Scott decision (§ 434), which declared the territories open to slav- 
ery independent of the will of the people. But the most that the 
northern delegates would concede was a resolution that the party 
would " abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United 
States on the questions of constitutional law." 

The southern delegates expressed their disappointment by 
seceding. Later, they organized a convention of their own, 
affirmed the principles of the Dred Scott decision, and nom- 
inated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky and Joseph Lane of 
Oregon for the presidency and vice presidency. Meanwhile 
the remaining delegates of the original Charleston Convention 
nominated Stephen A. Douglas (§§ 422, 439) for President and 
Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia for Vice President. Alexander 
H. Stephens of Georgia thought that this split in the Democratic 
party was the forerunner of civil war. He said, " Men will be 
cutting one another's throats in a little while." 

The " Constitutional Union party," composed mainly of 

1 See Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, II, ch. xii. 



From Frank B. Sanborn's " Life of John Brown," by permission of the Author. 



186()-] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 433 

"Know Nothings" (§ 419) and "Old Whigs" (§ 419), adopted 
a platform which did not mention slavery, but simply pledged 
the party to maintain "• the Constitution of the country, the 
union of the states, and the enforcement of the laws." They 
nominated John Bell of Tennessee and FMward Everett of Massa- 
chusetts ; hence the name " Bell and Everett party." 

The Republican Convention met in Chicago. They adopted a 
platform which denounced " threats of disunion " as an "avowal 
of contemplated treason"; they branded the Dred vScott decision 
(§ 434) as " a dangerous political heresy "; they recognized " the 
right of each state" "to control its own domestic institutions," 
but rejected "Popular Sovereignty" (§ 422) by denying "the 
authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or of any indi- 
viduals to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the 
United States."^ 

Finally, amid the cheers and yells of ten thousand excited men, 
they nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois (§ 439) and Han- 
nibal Hamlin of Maine for President and Vice President. This 
choice disappointed the friends of Seward who had labored for 
his nomination. Furthermore, it did not satisfy the extreme 
Abolitionists. Wendell Phillips was especially bitter at the selec- 
tion of Lincoln and publicly denounced him as " the slave hound 
of lUinois." ^ 

Jefferson Davis had said at the beginning of i860 that unless 
more slave states could be added, slavery would be overthrown 
within less than twenty years.^ Leading southern men now 
declared that Lincoln, like Fremont (§431), was a "sectional 
candidate," supported only by a " sectional party," and that they 
would never " submit to a ' Black Republican' President." The 
Republicans disclaimed all hostility to the South, but affirmed 
that it was slavery that was " sectional," and that the spirit of 



^ See Stanwood's The Presidency, and McKee's Conventions, 106-120, on these 
three platforms. 

- See Rhodes' United States, II. 473. 

•^See Von Hoist's Constitutional History of the United States, VTI, 116. 



434 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i860 

American institutions demanded freedom in the territories for the 
best interests of all. 

f 442. The election of Lincoln (i860). From the outset it was 
evident that if zeal could elect the Republican candidate he was 
sure of success. '' Wide- Awake Clubs," dressed in uniform and 
carrying flaring torches, marched nightly through every northern 
city and town, making the streets ring with their campaign 
songs. These parades foreshadowed the marches to the battle- 
field in which men of all parties were soon to take part. The 
governor of South Carolina, t>elieving that Lincoln's election 
would give slavery ''a fatal blow," sent a circular letter to the 
governors of the other cotton s|:ates declaring that his state stood 
ready to secede in case the Republicans won the day. 

At the election (i860) Lincoln received 180 electoral votes 
(but not one in the slave states), Breckenridge 72 (but not one 
in the free states), Bell 39, and Douglas 12. The popular vote 
stood 1,866,452 for Lincoln; 849,781 for Breckenridge ; 588,879 
for Bell; and 1,376,957 for Douglas. The Republicans failed to 
gain a majority in either branch of Congress ; hence their hands 
were tied in that body. 

443. Action of South Carolina; Buchanan's message; feeling 
at the North ; Stephens' speech ; the Crittenden Compromise. 
The news of Lincoln's election (i860) was received in Charleston, 
South Carolina, *' with long-continued cheering for a Southern 
Confederacy," and the Legislature summoned a convention to 
decide the question of secession. 

In his annual message (i860) President Buchanan declared : 
(i) that no state had the constitutional right to secede, and 
quoted General Jackson's words (§ 355) with approval; (2) that 
the federal government would take measures to hold the forts 
and other property of the United States in South Carolina; 
(3) but he added that the government had no constitutional 
power " to coerce a state." 

The action of South Carolina was a surprise to the North. 
Many northern men urged that immediate concessions should be 



1860] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 435 

made to prevent separation ; others believed that separation was 
inevitable. Two leading New York papers, representing the two 
great political parties, declared that the South had the same right 
to secede from the L^nion that the thirteen colonies had to 
secede from Great Britain. They furthermore insisted that " a 
Union pinned together with bayonets" would be worthless. On 
the other hand, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, in a speech 
before the Georgia Legislature (November 14, i860), called on 
the South to accept Lincoln's election ; " to secede because of 
that election," said he, "puts us in the wrong." Then he sig- 
nificantly added, " Some of our public men have failed in their 
aspirations " ; '' from that comes a great part of our troubles." 
This statement of Stephens was greeted with prolonged applause. 
Pollard of Virginia later said that southern ambition for office 
was a strong factor in secession. 

The venerable Senator Crittenden of Kentucky led a com- 
promise movement in Congress (December 18, i860). He pro- 
posed the adoption of five articles. The most important of these 
were : (i) an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery 
in all territory north of the line of 36° 30' (§ 324), and recogniz- 
ing it as existing in all territory south of that line ; but states 
on either side of said line might be admitted, with or without 
slavery, as their constitutions should provide, in accordance with 
Douglas' principle of "Popular Sovereignty" (§422); (2) the 
United States was to pay the owners for all rescued slaves ; (3) no 
future amendment of the Constitution should affect these articles 
or give Congress power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any 
states where it existed by law. 

Senator Crittenden's well-meant attempt to harmonize the 
interests of freedom and slavery was defeated. Congress con- 
sidered other compromise schemes which likewise failed. But 
eventually a resolution to amend the Constitution, so as to protect 
slavery forever in the Southern States, passed both Houses, and 
was approved by Buchanan (March 3, 1861). It was promptly 
ratified by the legislatures of Ohio and Maryland, but the coming 



436 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I860-I86I 

on of the Civil War blocked its further progress.^ In the mean- 
time Congress had erected the three new territories of Colorado, 
Nevada, and Dakota, without prohibiting slavery in them. In that 
action it followed Webster's position taken in 1850 (§413). 

444. Secession of South Carolina (i860); statement of reasons; 
six other states follow (1861). The crisis was reached on 
December 20, i860. On that eventful day the South Carolina 
Convention (§ 443), sitting in Charleston, unanimously passed an 
ordinance of secession. It declared that the union existing between 
South Carolina and the other states "is hereby dissolved.""^' 

The citizens of Charleston hailed the announcement with the 
wildest demonstrations of delight, and the daily papers of the 
city began forthwith to print all intelligence received from 
the North under the heading " Foreign News." 

South Carolina, having declared herself independent, sent a 
commission to Washington to demand of the United States the 
prompt surrender of all forts, arsenals, and other property held 
by the federal government within the seceded state. The Presi- 
dent declined to receive them officially. South Carolina denied 
that her action in withdrawing from the Union was revolutionary 
or rebellious, but claimed that the right to secede (§355) was 
" an essential part of state sovereignty," and that it was in no 
sense a violation of the Constitution. 

The Convention declared that South Carolina seceded for two 
reasons : first, because fourteen of the Northern States had 
"deliberately refused to fulfill their constitutional obligations" 
by enacting " Personal Liberty Laws " (§ 416), which nullified the 
Fugitive-Slave Act (§414) or rendered it useless to the South ; "^ 

1 See Macdonald's Select Documents, Nos. 93, 96: Rhodes" United States. Ill, 
150-154, 267, 313-314- 

2 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 94; Rhodes' United States, III, 197- 
204; Johnston's American Orations, III, 211-239. 

3 But effective measures had already been taken by a number of states to modify 
or repeal their " Personal Liberty Laws." Had the convention waited a short 
time, it seems probable that every state which had passed these laws would have 
removed all the objections made to them on the part of the South. See Rhodes' 
United States, III, 252-253. 



CHARLESTON 

MERCURY 



EXTRA: 



Passed unanitnously at 1.1 A o^clockt P* JV.^ December 
20/A. I860. 

AJT ORDINAIVCE 

7b dUsolM the Chton betttten the State t^f South €UiroUna mtd 
other States uttited with her taider the eompael. eutUled «7%« 
Coiutitution 0/ the VnUtd State* of ^mericaJ* 

We, ike People ef (A< Sutt of Sxith OiroUna, m Conuention auembUdt ia iedare and arOaok, *r4 
ft u herety declared and ordained, 

That (be Ordiatoc* idopted bj u In Conreatioa, on ihft twentj-tUM dt/ of }dij, ia tb» 
year of our Lord one thousand. «ereo hundred and etghty-eighl, whereby ibe Coutitution of the 
United Sutes of Ameriea waa ratified, and also, atl Acts and parta of Acts of the Geneial 
^^embly of this State, ratifying ameodmenta of the (aid Constitmioa, are hereby repealed ; 
aisd that tbe union now lubaisting between South Carolina and other Statea, under (be saine of 
*Xhe United Statea of.Aaerica," is hereby disaolred. 



UNION 

IISS0LVRD! 



1860-1861] THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 437 

secondly, because a geographical or sectional party had been 
formed at the North, which had elected a President " whose 
opinions and purposes " were " hostile to slavery," and who had 
publicly said (§ 439), the national '' government cannot perma- 
nently endure half slave, half free." ^ 
^ The South Carolina secessionists proclaimed that their object 
was to establish " a great Slaveholding Confederacy stretching its 
arms over a territory larger than any power in Europe possesses." 

By the first of February (1861) the six states of Mississippi, 
Plorida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had followed 
the example of South Carolina and had declared themselves out 
of the Union (§ 451). The Mississippi Convention frankly 
avowed that the object of secession was to save " slavery, the 
greatest material interest in the world." Georgia went reluctantly, 
apparently expecting to soon return. Stephens said she was in- 
duced to go by the argument, " We can make better terms out 
of the Union than in it." The truth was that many of her citi- 
zens, and those of the other cotton states as well, loved the old 
flag, and left it only because they were overcome by the secession 
movement and had no choice. These states seized the forts and 
other property of the United States within their limits so far as 
they could lay hands on them. The total value of what was taken 
has been estimated at from $30,000,000 to $40,000,000. In 
Texas General Twiggs turned over a very large quantity of national 
military stores to the secessionists. 

Early in January, 1861, President Buchanan sent a merchant 
vessel, the Sfar of the IVest^ with reenforcements and suppHes for 
Major Anderson, who held Fort Sumter for the Union. The people 
of Charleston fired on the vessel and compelled her to turn back. 
Wigfall of Texas, who still retained his seat in the United States 
Senate, jeered at the government, saying, "Your flag has been 
insulted ; redress it if you dare." But a little later, Secretary Dix 
telegraphed to a naval ofiicer at New Orleans, " If any one 
attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." 

1 See McPherson's Political History of the Rebellion, 16. 



438 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I86I 

445. The ''Confederate States of America"; their flag; their 
constitution; the Peace Convention. In February, 1861, dele- 
gates from all of the seceded states met at Montgomery, Alabama, 
and framed a provisional government.^ They took the name of 
the " Confederate States of America," and made Montgomery 
the capital of the new Slaveholding Republic. Pollard believes 
that they represented the " pohticians," not the " people," of the 
South. Jefferson Davis (§ 413) of Mississippi was elected Presi- 
dent for six years, with Alexander H. Stephens (§411) of Georgia 
as Vice President. 

Davis seems to have believed that in case of war the South 
would find the divided North an easy conquest ■,'^ and he declared 
that the densely populated cities of that section would provide 
"food for the sword and the torch." ^ 

In the Georgia State Convention Stephens had declared that 
the South had always held " the control " of the general govern- 
ment and could show no cause for withdrawing from the Union 
(§ 443). At that time Stephens denounced secession as " the 
height of madness, folly, and wickedness"; but, unhke Henry 
Clay at an earlier period (§ 413), he now declared that he would 
go with his state. He said that the " corner stone " of the Con- 
federacy rested on slavery as its foundation ; and he boasted 
that if true to itself, it would become " the controlling power on 
this continent." * 

In March, 1861, the Confederate States adopted the "stars 
and bars" as their national flag and ratified a permanent con- 
stitution.^ It differed from that of the United States in a number 

1 See McPherson's Political History of the Rebellion, 12; Johnston's American 
Orations, IV, 32. 

2 Ex-President Pierce had said in a letter to Jefferson Davis (January 6, i860) : 
" If [a war between the North and the South] must come, the fighting will not be 
along Mason and Dixon's line merely. It [will] be within our own borders, in our 
own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom I have referred." See 
McPherson's Political History of the Rebellion (revised edition), 391. 

3 See Greeley's American Conflict, I, 415. 

4 See Johnston's American Orations, IV, 39. 

5 See Macdonald's Select Documents, No. 97 ; McPherson's Political History of 
the Rebellion, 98. 



From U,e R.v. Morgan Dix's "Memoirs of John A. Dix," by permission o£ the Author. 









«>> 







Note.— Captain Breshwood of New Orleans refused to take any steps toward 
X"ll' ' -""' '""T ^l^f ''f-^f fromfalling into the hands of thLsece s on'st.^ 
vvho ^ere seizing such vessels for the use of the Southern States. The letter of 
becretary Dix on this point explains itself. 



uvsi; THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVF:L0PMENT 439 

of important points, four of which may be mentioned here : 
(i) the President's term of office was fixed at six years, and he 
could not be reelected ; (2 ) he could veto any appropriation and 
at the same time approve of any other appropriation in the same 
bill; (3) all protective duties and protective bounties were 
prohibited ; (4) slavery was nationalized, and was recognized and 
protected in all new territory which the Confederacv might 
acquire. 

On the very day on which the secession delegates met at 
Montgomery (^February 4, 1861) a "Peace Congress,"^ called 
at the request of Virginia, assembled at Washington. Twenty- 
one states were represented, but none of the seven seceded states 
sent delegates. The purpose of the convention was to effect a 
compromise and " save the Union," but nothing came of the 
attempt. While the men of peace were in session the people of 
Charleston were building batteries to bombard Sumter. They 
only waited for the order from Jefferson Davis to open fire and 
begin the Civil War. 

446. What made secession possible. Slavery was the primary 
cause of secession (§ 444). Madison, "the Father of the Con- 
stitution," was convinced that it threatened sooner or later to spht 
the Republic. Jefferson held the same conviction. Directly or 
indirectly it had threatened to destroy the Union from the outset 
(§ 257) ; yet, considered purely from an economic and industrial 
point of \'iew, there was a period in our history when slavery was 
an apparent advantage. Its introduction into Virginia (§ 44) 
stimulated the settlement of that colony, the mother-colony of 
the American commonwealth, and established a lucrative com- 
merce in tobacco. 

Later (§ 259), the same system of labor made the raising of 
cotton enormously profitable not only to the South but to the 
whole country. The whole country, too, had in some degree 
upheld keeping the African in bondage ; and Lincoln uttered the 
simple truth when he said, *' We are all responsible for slavery." 

^ See Macdonald's Select Documents. \os. 9;-96, 



440 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [mi 

But these temporary material benefits were offset by the fact 
that slave labor was necessarily opposed to progress beyond a 
certain point. It was adapted to a simple uniform routine sys- 
tem of agriculture, and to nothing more. It exhausted the soil ; 
it discouraged and degraded free labor ; it shut the South against 
immigration ; it refused to establish common schools. It concen- 
trated the capital, the intelligence, the political power, and the 
social influence of the South in the hands of a small per cent of 
the population, for seven voters out of every ten in that section 
were " poor whites," who did not own a single negro. It left the 
great mass of the people in poverty and ignorance and without 
real legislative representation. It was the slaveholder, and, as a 
rule, the slaveholder only, who went to Congress or was elected 
to any state office. The men who did not possess slaves were 
branded as " poor white trash," and the very negroes looked 
down upon them in contempt. These " poor whites " were the 
victims of the slave system ; as a recent southern writer acknowl- 
edges, they withered under its overshadowing influence as shrubs 
wither beneath a widespreading oak.-^ 

So far as progress was concerned in i860 slavery was a spent 
force. It was a system of labor which the civiHzed world gener- 
ally had outgrown and cast aside. More than that, it was a 
stumbling-block to the very people who, at an earlier period, had 
wished to rid themselves of it .(§ 45), but who now cherished it 
and were ready to fight for it. It was the misfortune, not the 
crime, of the southern people (§ 352) that they could not see this 
then. They had been reared among slaves and Calhoun had 
educated them to believe that African servitude was " a positive 
good " to both black and white (§ 354). 

Hence, as a representative of South Carolina has said, slavery 
kept the South stationary *' in government, in society, in employ- 
ments, in labor," '^ so that it had not moved for half a century. 
It was a case of what physiologists call "arrested development," 
and the best powers of our southern brothers lay concealed 

1 See Smith's History of Georgia, 141. ii See C. D. Wright's United States, 146. 



1861" 



THE UNION, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 441 



and dormant, waiting for the great day of emancipation and 
resurrection. 

At the North everything had changed ; slavery had disappeared, 
free labor prospered, education was open to all, millions of sturdy 
immigrants had settled in the West and planted civilization in the 
wilderness. Patriotism, thanks in no small measure to ^Vebster's 
efforts (§'^51), had outgrown the narrow crippling theory of state 
sovereignty and had broadened into a genuine devotion to the 
LInion. For many years no man, or set of men, possessed of 
political influence had so much as hinted at the possibiHty of 
northern secession (§§ 282, 310, 382). 

On the other hand, the southern people had been taught by 
Calhoun^ and his school that the American Republic, however 
dear it might be to them, was not a nation, but simply a partner- 
ship of independent states, which had the constitutional right to 
withdraw when they saw fit. Misled by slavery, they had come 
to believe that their welfare depended on holding the negro in 
bondage. Notwithstanding the protests of the Republican party 
to the contrary, they conceived that the election of Lincoln 
showed that the free states were resolved to destroy the system 
of property in man throughout the South. "^ 

In order to perpetuate and extend that system they now deter- 
mined to pull down the pillars of the Republic and build up a 
new commonwealth, " separated," as an able southern writer has 
said, " from the rest of the world in sympathy and feeling," 
opposed to progress, with its face turned from the light and 
toward the past. Thus slavery bred sectionalism, and sectionalism 
bred secession and civil war. 

447. Summary. The chief events of Buchanan's administra- 
tion were : (i) the Dred Scott decision, opening the territories 
to slavery; (2) the panic of 1857; (3) the discovery of the 

1 See Calhoun's Works, VI, 169, 194 et seq. Calhoun's love of the Union 
was overbalanced by his conviction of the right of nullification and, if need be, of 
secession in the interest of state sovereignty and of slavery (§§ 355, 404, 413). 

- See Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress, I, 257. 



442 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I86I 

" Bonanza " silver mines and the development of our petroleum 
deposits ; (4) the Mormon rebellion ; (5) the John Brown raid ; 
(6) the secession of South Carolina, followed by six other states, 
and the formation of the Southern Confederacy. 




Map of Charleston Harbor 

Showing Fort Sumter and the battery which fired on the Star of the West 
(see § 444) 



VI 

THE WAR OF SECESSION ^ 

(1861-1865) 

For authorities for this chapter, see footnotes and the classified 
list of books in the Appendix, Page xxiv 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (REPUBLICAN), TWO TERMS (1861-1869) 

448. Lincoln's journey to Washington and inaugural address. 

Lincoln fully realized the gravity of the situation. He had been 
elected President by a divided people and Congress was under 
the control of the party which had opposed him (§442). In 
his farewell speech at Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln said to his 
friends : " I go to assume a task more difficult than that which 
devolved upon Washington. LTnless the great God, who assisted 
him, shall be with and aid me, I must fail." To avoid the danger 
of threatened assassination at Baltimore, the President elect, act- 
ing on the ad\dce of (leneral Scott and Secretary Seward,^ made 
the last part of his journey to Washington secretly by night train. 



1 See Dodge's Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War (revised edition) ; Schouler's Civil 
War ; Rhodes' United States, III-V ; McPherson's Political History of the Rebel- 
lion (revised edition) ; Greeley's American Conflict ; Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln ; Bur- 
gess' Civil War and the Constitution ; The Century Company's Battles and Sieges 
of the Civil War; Grant's Memoirs; Sherman's Memoirs; Hart's American History 
told by Contemporaries, IV ; Macdonald's Select Statutes ; Blaine's Twenty Years 
of Congress, I; Stephens' War between the States (Confederate); Jefferson Davis' 
Rise and Fall of the Confederate States (Confederate) ; Gordon's Reminiscences of 
the Civil War (Confederate). 

•■i President Lincoln's Cabinet. Secretary of State, William H. Seward; Secretary 
of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase (succeeded July 5, 1864, by Wm. P. Fessenden) ; 
Secretary of War, Simon Cameron (succeeded January 11, 1862, by Edwin M. Stan- 
ton) ; Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles ; Secretary of the Interior, C. B. Smith 
(succeeded January 8, 1863, by J. P, Usher) ; Attorney-General, Edward Bates 

443 



444 1'HE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I861- 

In his inaugural address^ (§ 442) the President said : *' I have 
no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 
of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no law- 
ful right to do so and I have no inclination to do so." He even 
favored an amendment to the Constitution (§ 443) prohibiting 
such interference. Passing to the question of secession, he said : 
" The union of these states is perpetual." " No state upon its 
own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union." " I shall 
take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, 
that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states." 
"The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and 
possess the property and places belonging to the government." 

Then turning to those of his hearers who sympathized with 
secession, he said : " In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow- 
countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict 
without being yourselves the aggressors. You can have no oath 
registered in heaven to destroy the government ; while I shall have 
the most solemn one to * preserve, protect, and defend it.' " 



First Year of the War (April, i 86 i-April, 1862) 

449. Anderson's report ; division in the Cabinet ; capture of 
Fort Sumter. The next day Major Anderson of Fort Sumter 
(§ 444) reported that he had but a month's provisions left, and 
that it would require 20,000 men to relieve and hold the fort. 
Anderson's entire force consisted of 128 men, half of whom were 
noncombatants. 

President Lincoln was by nature a man of peace. His maxim 
was, " It is better to plow round the log than to try to plow 

(succeeded December 14, 1864, by James Speed) ; Postmaster-General, Montgomery 
Blair (succeeded October i, 1864, by Wm. Dennison). Second Term. Cabinet 
changes : Secretary of the Treasury, Hugh McCulloch ; Secretary of the Interior, 
James Harlan. 

1 See Johnston's American Orations. I\', 16: Xicolay and Hay's Lincoln, HI, 327. 



1861] THE WAR OF SECESSION 445 

through it"; but the question of reheving Anderson demanded 
immediate action, and such action seemed Hkely to precipitate 
civil war. 

The Cabinet was divided. Seward thought that the secession 
difficulty would be satisfactorily settled within " sixty days," and 
suggested that the best way to reunite the North and the South 
would be to declare a foreign war. Chase, on the other hand, 
thought that if we must choose between civil war and peaceful 
separation, we had better accept the latter. General Scott, as 
the President's chief military adviser, beheved that it would be 
best to compromise with the Southern States or else say, " Way- 
ward sisters, depart in peace." 

Meanwhile a terrific scramble for office was going on, and the 
President said that he felt like a man letting apartments in a 
burning building " likely soon to perish in ashes." 

At a consultation of the Cabinet, Chase and Blair voted to 
relieve Fort Sumter ; the remaining five members voted against 
it as inexpedient ; but at a final meeting on this subject all the 
members voted for it. The President, however, had already 
resolved to take the responsibility on himself and " send bread 
to Anderson." This decision brought matters to a crisis. Gen- 
eral Beauregard was in command of the secession forces in 
Charleston, and JefTerson Davis ordered him to demand the 
immediate surrender of Fort Sumter. Major Anderson dechned 
to give up the fort. 

At daybreak the next morning (April 12, 1861) Beauregard's 
batteries opened fire. Anderson's guns repHed as best they 
could. The artillery duel continued thirty-four hours. The 
commander of Fort Sumter could hold out no longer. His 
handful of men were utterly exhausted and his provisions and 
available ammunition were used up ; he was forced to capitulate. 
No one had been killed on either side ; it was the bloodless 
beginning of the bloodiest civil war known in modern history. 

On Sunday morning (April 14, 186 1) the brave defender of 
Sumter led his Httle garrison out of the fort. They departed 



446 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I86I 

with the honors of war, — colors flying and drums beating. 
Major Anderson took with him the shot-torn national flag which 
had floated above the fort ; on that very day, four years later, it 
was triumphantly restored to its old place. He and his men 
then embarked for New York. 

450. The President's call for troops; Davis retaliates; the 
blockade ; the uprising of the North ; the first bloodshed. The 
next morning (April 15, 1861) the President summoned an extra 
session of Congress to meet on July 4, and issued a procla- 
mation ^ calling for 75,000 "three-months' men " ^ (§508) to 
uphold the national flag and defend the national honor. Da\ds 
retorted by calling for 32,000 men and by inviting privateers 
(§ 312) to attack northern merchant vessels. A few days later 
(April 19, 1 861), President Lincoln declared the ports of the 
Confederate States blockaded against foreign commerce.^ He 
also declared that the Confederate privateers would be treated 
as pirates, but the progress of the war compelled the national 
government to recede from this position (§ 460). 

The North responded to the President's call with an alacrity 
and enthusiasm which could not be mistaken. Over 90,000 
men enhsted. The streets of the great cities blazed with patri- 
otic colors and resounded with martial music and the tramp of 
armed men hurrying to the defense of the nation. Party lines 
were thrown down ; everywhere the cry rose, " Crush the rebel- 
lion ! " Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's old poHtical antagonist 
(§§439, 441), hastened to the President to take him by the 
hand and assure him of his support. He saw that the time for 
compromise had passed.* " Now," said he, " every man must 
be for the United States or against it." He died soon after the 
great war began, but he used his voice and pen to the last in 
behalf of the Union. The " War Democrats " responded nobly 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. i. 

2 As the law then stood, the President could not call out the state militia for a 
longer time. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 2. 

'^ See Johnston's American Orations, III, 176. 



1861] THE WAR OF SECESSION 447 

to Douglas' appeal, and during the long struggle they vied with 
the Republicans in their devotion to the government. 

Pennsylvania was first in the field, but the Massachusetts 
Sixth was the first fully armed regiment which entered the 
national capital. On its way through Baltimore (April 19, i86i) 
the regiment was attacked by a mob of howling "roughs"; a 
number of the soldiers were wounded and several were killed.^ 
It was the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. 
On that day, sacred to the cause of American liberty, the 
first blood was shed for the preservation of the Union. The fol- 
lowing day the garrison at Fort Monroe, the most important 
stronghold on the coast, was reenforced, and the next month 
General Butler took command there. Washington was speedily 
transformed into a military camp, and the first story of the 
national capitol was converted into a vast bakery to feed the 
men who had started out to fight in behalf of the Union. 

45 1 . The uprising of the South ; what North and South fought 
for; secession of four more states; the ''border states." The 
military activity of the South equaled that of the North ; thou- 
sands of volunteers. rushed to answer Davis' call. The politicians 
had started the secession movement (§ 443) purely in the inter- 
est of slavery and of their own selfish ambition. The first gun 
fired at Sumter roused the mass of the southern people to wild 
excitement, and they were ready to move even faster than their 
leaders wished. 

The Secession Congress at Montgomery declared that President 
Lincoln's call for troops was an attempt to " overawe, oppress, and 
finally subjugate the people of the Confederate States." The rank 
and file of the secession army did not question the truth of this 
assertion. Most of them were men w^ho recognized no authority 
higher than that of their own state. Misled by this idea, they be- 
lieved that the North threatened to invade and destroy their homes, 
liberate the slaves, and " swamp the country with barbarism." 

1 But this attack did not represent the real feeling of the state ; eventually many 
of its men entered the Union army. 



448 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY . [I861 

Lincoln clearly stated the issue when he said later : " Both 
parties deprecated war ; but one of them would make war rather 
than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war 
rather than let it perish ; and the war came." 

The call of the national government for troops compelled the 
remaining slave states to decide what course they would take. 
Virginia, Arkansas, North Xarohna, and Tennessee joined the 
Confederacy, making a total of eleven states. This gave the 
seceding section an area nearly equal to that of the entire United 
States at the close of the Revolution. In May (1861) the Con- 
federate capital was removed to Richmond. 

The people of the western part of Virginia had but few slaves ; 
they generally opposed secession, and later (1863) they organized 
a separate state under the name of West Virginia. The gover- 
nors of the four border slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri refused to answer the President's call for 
volunteers to defend the national flag ; but subsequently all of 
these states contributed large numbers of men to the ranks of the 
Union army. So, too, did eastern Tennessee, which was strongly 
loyal. ^ 

452. Mistakes of the secessionists; the situation; population of 
the North and of the South. The southern politicians who incited 
secession made three serious mistakes at the outset: (i) they 
believed that all of the slave states would join them and so form 
a "solid South"; (2) the utterances of prominent men of the 
''Peace party" at the North led the secessionists to think that 
the North would be in danger of civil war among its own people 
(§ 444), and that the President would be powerless to prevent 
the dismemberment of the Union ; (3) finally, the secessionists 
thought that if the North did take up arms to save the nation, 
England's need of cotton and Napoleon's desire to get possession 
of Mexico would induce those powers to interfere and recog- 
nize southern independence. None of these things happened, 

1 The border slaveholding states contributed nearly 350,000 white troops to the 
ranks of the Union army, and even the states which seceded furnished over 86,000. 



1861] THE WAR OF SECESSION 449 

and the states which seceded had to accept the situation as best 
they could. 

I'he condition of affairs in the early summer of 1 86 1 was as fol- 
lows : Of the thirty-four states then constituting the Union eleven 
had seceded and four were divided in their allegiance. Nineteen 
states stood firmly by the old flag. 

The census of i860 reported the total population of the United 
States at nearly 31,500,000. Of this number the seceded states 
had somewhat over 9,000,000, including about 3,500,000 slaves, 
who, though noncombatants, would by their labor keep many com- 
batants in the field. The " border states " had a population of some- 
what more than 3,000,000 and the free states about 19,000,000. 
The available military strength of the free states was probably three 
times greater than that of the South, and in the course of the war 
it was increased by the enlistment of negroes and by the arrival of 
over 600,000 immigrants (§ 374). Lincoln estimated the total 
force which the Union states could furnish in case of emergency 
at 4,000,000. 

453, Material resources and military advantages of the two sec- 
tions. The wealth of the North was immensely greater than that 
of the South. The census of i860 reported the assessed valuation 
of the North in round numbers at nearly $11,000,000,000, and 
that of the South at only a Httle more than $5,000,000,000, and of 
this $2,000,000,000 was slave property. With few exceptions, the 
North had the foundries, factories, workshops, and shipyards, — in 
a word, the " machine power " and mechanical skill of the nation. 
Besides this it had a thousand million acres of public lands north 
and west of the slave region and it possessed mines which annu- 
ally produced gold and silver worth nearly $100,000,000.^ The 
North, too, had two thirds of all the railways, and her ports 
remained open to the commerce of the globe. 

The South, after her ports were once fairly blockaded, was cut 
off from getting supplies from abroad. It was difficult, if not 
impossible, for her to repair a railway that had once been 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 273-274. 



450 I'HK STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [isei 

destroyed in any large degree ; and after the war reached a certain 
point every man killed or crippled created a vacancy that even 
Jefferson Davis found it impossible to fill. 

But on the other hand, the southern people were more accus- 
tomed to the use of firearms than those of the North. They had 
the immense advantage of fighting mainly on the defensive, on 
inside lines, and on territory where they, and they only, knew 
every foot of the ground. 

The North was forced to employ colossal armies, for the Union 
troops were compelled not only to conquer but also to hold an ever- 
increasing area having a maximum of over 800,000 square miles. 
In nearly every instance they had to carry their supplies with them 
over a constantly lengthening line which w^as often liable to be 
broken by a sudden attack in the rear. General Grant states that 
when he advanced into the " Wilderness " in his campaign against 
Richmond, his wagon train extended between fifty and sixty miles 
in a straight line and required 18,000 horses and mules to draw it. 

All things considered. Grant thought that the two contending 
forces, from a military point of view, were practically about equal. 
In the course of the war the North called out a total force, reen- 
Hstments included, of nearly 3,000,000 men (§ 508). All were 
volunteers except a small number obtained by draft. ^ 

After the first enlistments liberal bounties had to be paid in 
order to secure troops. These bounties averaged ^400 per head, 
and amounted in the aggregate to about $300,000,000, besides 
$100,000,000 devoted to helping soldiers' families."^ The greatest 
number of troops in the Union service at any one time was a little 
over 1 ,000,000 ; the greatest number* in the Confederate service 
at one time has been estimated at about 470,000. 

No trustworthy statistics of southern enlistments can be had ; 
but it is known that a merciless system of conscription eventually 
forced their entire available fighting population, from boys to old 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 31, 

2 See Rhodes' United States, IV, 430-432 ; Billings' Hard Tack and Coffee, 
36-38, 214-215; Greeley's American Conflict, II, 760. 



More Ma ssarJin setts Volunteers Accepted! : / 



Three Regiments to be Immediately Recruited ! 

GEN. WILSOFS EEGIMENT, 

To which OAPT. FOLLETT'S BATTEEY is attached; 

OOL. JONES' GALLANT SIXTH EEGIMENT, 

AVHICH WENT "THROUGH BALTIMORE"; 

THE' N. E. GUAKDS EEGIMENT, commanded by that 
excellent officer, MAJOE J. T. STEVENSON. 



The undersigned has tliis day been authorized and directed to fill up the ranks of 
these regiments forthwith. A grand opportunity is afforded for patriotic persons to 
enlist in the service of their country under the command of as able officers as the 
country has yet furnished. Pay and rations will begin immediately on enlistment. 

UNIFORMS ALSO PROVIDED! 

Citizens of Massachusetts should feel pride in attaching themselves to regiments 
from their own State, in order to maintain the proud supremacy which the Old Bay 
State now enjoys in the contest for the Union and the Constitution. The people of 
many of the towns and cities of the Commonwealth have made ample provision for 
those joining the ranks of the army. If any person enlists in a Company or Regiment 
out of the Commonwealth, he cannot share in the bounty which has been thus liber- 
ally voted. Wherever any town or city has assumed the privilege of supporting the 
families of Volunteers, the Commonwealth reimburses such place to the amount of 
.f 12 per month for families of three persons. 

Patriots desiring to serve the country will bear in mind that 

THE GENERAL RECRUITING STATION 

IS AT 
IVo. 1^ PITTS STREET, B0ST0:N' : 

WILLIAM W. BUT.LOCK. 

General Recruiting Officer, Massachusfffs Volunteers. 
\_Bofton Joiirnai of Sept. 12, 1861.] 



GENERAL POPE'S ARMY. 



*' Lynch Laiv for Guerillas and 3>> Bebel 
Propertu Guarded I '* 

I.S THE MOTTO OF THE 

SECOND MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT. 

^578.50 for 31 months' service. 
«353.00 State aid for families of four. 
«8830.50 and short service. 
.*135.00 cash in hand. 

This Regiment, although second in number, is second to none in regard to disci- 
pline and efficiency, and is in the healthiest and most delightful country. 

Office at Coolidge House, Bowdoin Square. 

CAPT. C. R. Ml DGE. 
LIEUT. A. D. SAWYER. 



THE WAR OF SECESSION 



451 



men, to enter the Confederate ranks ; as Butler said, ''They robbed 
the cradle and the grave " to get fighting men. 

454. The Union navy ; the Confederate cruisers and privateers. 
Shortly before the war broke out the scanty navy of the United 
States was dispersed in foreign waters, and a Congressional com- 
mittee reported that only two armed vessels " were available for 
the defense " or blockade of the southern Atlantic coast. The 
line of blockade extended for 3000 miles with but a single Union 
port of refuge. To hold this line, and to conduct naval opera- 
tions along the coast and on the western rivers, at least six hun- 
dred vessels would be required. With few exceptions, all of these 
had to be built, bought, or hired by the government. 

The Confederate States had no navy, but they captured the 
hulks of a number of first-class vessels of war when (1861) they 
got possession of the Norfolk navy yard. They sent out a few 
privateers and a number of small armed cruisers, built several for- 
midable ironclads at home, and built or fitted out the Florida, 
the Shenandoah^ and the Alabama in England (§§ 503, 526). 
These cruisers, armed with British guns and manned largely by 
British sailors, destroyed Union property worth many millions 
and drove merchant ships flying the Union flag from the ocean. 

455. The financial side of the war. The national government 
entered upon the war with an empty treasury, but loyal men came 
to the rescue and furnished money to meet the most pressing 
immediate calls. The gigantic contest cost the loyal states on an 
average over ^2,000,000 a day. The funds to meet this enormous 
demand were obtained from four sources: (i) duties on imports 
under the Morrill protective tariff^ of 1861 and the higher tariffs 
of 1862 and 1864 (§ 404) ; (2) internal revenue taxes which drew 
tribute from almost every form of property, visible or invisible ; 
(3) the sale of interest-bearing bonds and interest-bearing treas- 
ury notes ; (4) the issue of over $430,000,000 of legal-tender 
notes, popularly known as "greenbacks." But the chief reliance 
of the government was on the sale of bonds ; these were freely 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States. 265. 



452 THE STLIDKNT'S AMKKICAiN HISTORY [im 

taken by all classes of people and were largely purchased abroad. 
The success of these sales was due in very great measure to 
Jay Cooke, a Philadelphia banker, who became the sole financial 
agent of the government. He disposed of bonds aggregating the 
enormous sum of ^2,000,000,000. To further stimulate the sale 
of these bonds at home Congress estabUshed (1863) a system of 
National Banks, which were required to buy and hold government 
bonds as security for the notes they put in circulation.^ 

The enormous issues of paper money caused proportionate 
depreciation, and the demand for gold compelled all banks to 
suspend specie payment. In spite of the vigorous efforts of Sec- 
retary Chase and of Congress to prevent it, gold kept rising, until 
it finally (1864) touched 285^, and the purchasing power of the 
" greenback " dollar fell to less than thirty-six cents. As " green- 
backs" fell, prices, of course, rose, although wages failed to advance 
in anything like the same proportion. Silver, like gold, disap- 
peared from circulation, all the banks in the country suspended 
specie payment, and in order to meet the demand for ^' change " 
the government had to issue fractional paper currency in notes 
ranging in value from three to fifty cents. The total issues and 
reissues of this currency amounted to nearly ^370,000,000. 

The Confederate States likewise issued bonds and treasury 
notes. At first they were able to sell these securities abroad and 
to export considerable quantities of cotton in exchange for foreign 
arms arid supplies. But the blockade gradually cut off all inter- 
course with Europe and the sale of Confederate bonds ceased. 
After the first year of the war the paper money of the South rap- 
idly depreciated, and long before the close of the contest it had 
become practically worthless. 

456. Extraordinary powers granted to the President. In order 
to successfully prosecute the war for the preservation of the Union, 
the President believed it necessary to do a number of things 
usually considered beyond the province of the Executive. In 
emergencies he took possession of railroad and telegraph lines, 
1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, ch. xii, xiii. 



THE WAK OF SECESSION 



453 



arrested many thousands of suspected persons, temporarily stopped 
the publication of several newspapers, and suspended the writ of 
habeas corpus. 

Congress (1863) fully sustained him in the exercise of these 
powers,^ although the "Peace party," and even many strong 
Union men, loudly protested. The extreme portion of that party 
— nicknamed "Copperheads" from a venomous snake which 
strikes without giving warning — did not hesitate to avow their 
sympathy with secession. They declared that the President 
deliberately violated the Constitution.^ The truth is that no writ- 
ten frame of government has ever been planned which could meet 
the terrible exigency of a great civil war, and cases arose when the 
President felt that it was necessary to bend the Constitution in 
order to avoid breaking it. At the South, Jefferson Davis pur- 
sued a still more arbitrary course, and his administration seems 
to have become an absolute military despotism. ^^ 

457. Attitude of foreign powers. In the spring of 186 1 Queen 
Victoria issued a proclamation of neutrality forbidding British 
subjects to give aid to the combatants of either side and recog- 
nizing the Confederate States as a belligerent power. ^ This proc- 
lamation virtually acknowledged the right of the United States to 
blockade the Confederate ports and to cut off their supplies. On 
the other hand, it recognized the Confederate flag on the ocean 
and so made the Confederate cruisers privateers instead of pirates 

(§450)- 

France and the other commercial powers of Europe followed 
the example of Great Britain. Russia remained friendly to the 
Union cause, and in 1863, when the success of that cause looked 
doubtful, a fleet of Russian war ships came into the harbor of New 
York. This visit was understood to be a sign of the czar's good 
will toward us."^ Later in the war. Confederate commissioners 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 32. 
'^ See Johnston's American Orations, IV, 82. 

^ The United States was soon forced to do the same thing (§ 460). 
•1 See Punch's cartoon of Lincoln holding a candle for the Russian bear, Novem- 
ber 7, 1863. 



454 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [isGi 

attempted to obtain the recognition of southern independence by 
the pope, but the head of the Catholic Church simply expressed 
the wish to see the conflict ended and " peace restored." 

The English press with few exceptions favored the cause of 
disunion. Punch had nothing but ridicule for the terrible struggle, 
and the London T/V/^^fi" hastened to declare that "American insti- 
tutions" had " collapsed." Carlyle said of the war that it was " the 
foulest chimney of the century burning out." English " society " 
and the commercial classes generally shared this feeling. The former 
accused the North of " fighting for empire " ; the latter saw that 
the success of the South promised to secure free trade for British 
goods in exchange for cotton. But John Bright, John Stiiart Mill, 
and th^J/buke of Argyll stood firmly by the Union ; so too did 
the London Daily News. Notwithstanding the queen's procla- 
mation of neutrality, English capital furnished fleet steamers to 
run the blockade and to supply the Confederates with arms of the 
latest pattern. The great mass of the English people, however, 
never lost faith in the ultimate triumph of the North ; no hard- 
ships or privations could induce the starving cotton spinners of 
Lancashire to lift a finger in favor of opening the Confederate 
ports or of recognizing Confederate independence. This cordial 
feeling toward the Union has since gained ground among all 
classes; and the relations now existing between the two great 
English-speaking nations of the globe are such as do honor to both. 

458. The Sanitary and the Christian Commissions ; the work- 
ing army and the fighting army. Soon after the war broke out 
the Sanitary and Christian Commissions were organized to give 
aid and relief to sick and wounded Union soldiers, to furnish 
them books and newspapers, and to minister to their spiritual as 
well as their bodily needs. Both did a noble work in a noble way. 

Throughout the war there were two armies engaged in battling 
for the Union \ one fought in the field, while the other worked at 
home to maintain, aid, and comfort those who had gone to " the 
front." In this home work women took a leading part. They did 
as much toward saving the nation as the men. They gave their 



1861] THE WAR OF SECESSION 



455 



labor, their zeal, their tears, their prayers, — in a deei) and true 
sense they laid down their lives for the cause. They organized 
and carried on more than seven thousand local societies, all tribu- 
tary to the Sanitary Commission, and they sent many millions of 
dollars' worth of articles to be distributed by that commission. 

In every city and hamlet throughout the North they met from 
week to week to work for their husbands, sons, brothers, and 
friends who had gone to the front. They rolled bandages, scraped 
lint, prepared delicacies for the sick and wounded, and in many 
ways made the soldier realize that his welfare held the highest 
place in their hearts. Without the efforts of the grand army of 
fighters the Union could not have been saved ; without the efforts 
of the grand army of workers those who fought could not have 
held out to final victory. 

At the South the same intense devotion was shown, and the 
sacrifices which the people made in behalf of the Confederate 
forces were even greater, because their means were more limited. 
To-day the South is glad that it failed, for it sees that the success 
of the Union did not mean the triumph of one section over the 
other, but the reconstruction of the entire nation on broader and 
higher lines which secure the welfare of North and South alike. 

459. Recapitulation of the object of the war ; Union plan of 
campaign. The South began the contest with the avowed object 
of breaking away from the Union and setting up an independent 
slaveholding Confederacy. The North reluctantly accepted the 
challenge hurled by the batteries which fired on Sumter. The 
object of the national government was not to subjugate the South 
(§ 451), not to liberate her slaves (§ 472), but simply and solely 
" to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and 
preserve the Union." The issue was not sought by the North, 
but was forced upon it, because, as Lincoln said, secession meant 
" immediate dissolution or blood." 

The President (May 3, 186 1) called for 40,000 more volunteers 
and directed an increase of 20,000 in the regular army. General 
Scott had strengthened the garrison at Fort Monroe (§ 450) and 



456 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I86l 

was encircling Washington with earthworks. His plan was to 
surround the Confederate States and attack them simultaneously 
at every point by land and sea ; this was what the newspapers 
called " Scott's anaconda." 

Later, the plan adopted was : (i) to maintain a strict blockade 
along the Confederate coast and at the same time force open the 
Confederate ports ; (2 ) to take the Confederate capital and so 
destroy the political as well as the military power concentrated 
there ; (3) to open the Mississippi and its southern tributaries 
which the South had seized and fortified ; (4) to break through the 
Confederate line in the West, march an army to the Atlantic, 
and thence northward. 

460. McClellan in West Virginia ; Bull Run. The contest 
opened in West Virginia. McClellan drove out the Confederates 
(May-June, 1861) and reported that he had killed secession 
in that region. The Union line (see map facing page 413) 
extended from Fort Monroe along the southern bank of the Poto- 
mac to Harpers Ferry and thence southwesterly through Ken 
tucky to the Mississippi just below Cairo, Illinois; thence 
northwesterly through Missouri to Fort Leavenworth and onward 
toward the Pacific. The total number of Union troops was about 
180,000, confronted by a Confederate army of about 150,000. 

As the summer wore on the newspapers became impatient. 
The northern press cried, "On to Richmond"; the southern, 
" On to Washington." Scott himself was too old and infirm to 
take the field ; he did not think the Union army ready to advance, 
but, yielding to pressure, reluctantly ordered McDowell to move 
against Beauregard. The Union men started out as if on a holi- 
day excursion, stopping to pick blackberries as they went along. 

The first great battle of the war ensued (July 21, 1861) at 
Bull Run.^ The forces engaged were of equal strength, but. 

1 Official estimates give the Union forces engaged at about 18,000 ; Confederate 
forces engaged at about 18,000. Union loss, 2896; Confederate loss, 1982. No 
absoluteh^ accurate returns are obtainable. See the Century Company's Battles 
and Leaders of the Civil War, I, 194, 195. In all reports of battles General 
Grant's statement should be borne in mind. He says, in speaking of the strength 



t 92 Greenwich 87 




15 Washingt- 



1861] 



THE WAR OF SECESSION 



457 



Chambersburi 

N N S 



as General Joseph E. Johnston admits, the Confederates had 
the great advantage of being strongly posted and of fighting on 
the defensive. The beginning of the battle promised the success 
of the Union troops ; but Johnston brought up reenforcements, 
and at a critical moment General Jackson, whose stubborn 
steadfastness here gained him the name of " Stonewall " Jackson, 
checked the fed- 
eral advance by a 
bayonet charge. 

Immediately 
afterward fresh 
Confederate reen- 
forcements came 
up by rail from the 
Shenandoah Val- 
ley, struck the 
Union troops a 
sudden and ter- 
rible blow on the 
flank, and drove 
them from the 
field. Their 
broken ranks, 
drenched by pour- 
ing rain and dis- 
heartened by 
defeat, rushed into 
Washington; but the Confederates made no attempt to follow. 
In fact, many left the southern army and went home, thinking 
that they had already conquered a peace. The national govern- 
ment did not lose heart, but rose to meet the emergency. That 

of the Union armies in the field, that all present were generally counted, while the 
Confederates counted none but the actual combatants, in other words, the effective 
strength of their forces. See Grant's Memoirs, II, 290. So, too, the estimate of 
losses cannot be taken in any instance as entirely reliable. See Phisterer's " Statis- 
tical Record," in Campaigns of the Civil War, page 213. 




458 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [186I 

very day (July 22, 1861) the special session of Congress (§ 450) 
voted to raise 500,000 three-years' men to prosecute the war, 
and at the same time the House passed a resolution declaring 
that the sole object of the government was " to defend and 
maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the 
Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several 
states unimpaired ; and that as soon as these objects are accom- 
plished the war ought to cease." The Senate adopted a similar 
resolution.^ 

On the other hand, the Union defeat at Bull Run compelled 
the United States to make arrangements for the regular exchange 
of prisoners of war. In order to accomplish this the national 
government felt obliged to recognize the Confederates as belliger- 
ents (§ 457), and to give up the poHcy of treating the Confederate 
privateers as pirates (§450). 

4611 . " Drill and organize ! " McClellan ; Missouri ; the Atlantic 
coast. Throughout the North the cry now went up, " Drill and 
organize ! " and McClellan (§ 460) was put in command of the 
Army of the Potomac. When Scott retired in November (1861) 
McClellan was made General Commander of the land forces of 
the United States.- 

McClellan spent the remainder of 186 1 in converting an army 
of civilians — many of whom had never handled a gun in their lives 
— into an army of disciplined soldiers. In this respect he did a 
great work and prepared the way for Union success. General 
Meade, the victor at Gettysburg, said, " Had there been no 
McClellan there could have been no Grant." 



1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, Nos. 5, 6. 

■- The armies of the United States were commanded by the President as Com- 
mander in Chief under the Constitution, and under him, as General Commanders, by 
Lieutenant General Winfield Scott until November 6, 1861 ; followed by Major General 
George B. McClellan until March 11, 1862 (from March 11 to July 12, 1862, there 
was no General Commander) ; Major General Henry W. Halleck from July 12, 1862, 
to March 12, 1864; Lieutenant General U, S. Grant from March 12, 1864, to March 4, 
1869. On the Confederate side General Braxton Bragg held the office of military 
adviser to Jefferson Davis from February 24, 1864, to November of that year. 
Robert E. Lee was the first General in Chief; he was appointed February 6, 1865. 




Defenses of Washington 
Showing the girdle of sixty forts which protected it during the war 



459 



460 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I86I-I862 

In the West, Confederate forces from Arkansas and Texas had 
invaded Missouri and had made a desperate effort to carry the 
state over to secession. But the Union sentiment was strong 
under such leaders as Francis P. Blair, Jr.; and General Lyon, 
succeeded by Fremont and Halleck, gradually drove the invaders 
southward.^ They were finally routed with great slaughter at Pea 
Ridge, Arkansas (March 7-8, 1862). 

On the Atlantic coast. Union naval expeditions took the Con- 
federate forts (1861) at Hatteras Inlet, Hilton Head, and Port 
Royal on the coast of the Carolinas ; Roanoke Island, Newbern, 
and other points were captured later. These victories secured 
ports of refuge for the blockading squadron and established 
important bases for military operations against the interior. 

462. The "Trent" affair; seizure of Mason and Slidell. In 
the autumn of 1861 Jefferson Davis sent James M. Mason, the 
originator of the Fugitive-Slave Act of 1850 (§ 414), and ex- 
Senator John Slidell of Louisiana to Europe as Confederate 
commissioners to obtain aid for the southern cause. They ran 
the blockade and embarked as "missionaries " at Havana on the 
British mail steamer Trent. Captain Wilkes, in command of the 
United States sloop of war San Jacinto, lay in wait for the Trent. 
When she hove in sight he forced her to stop (November 8, 
186 1 ), seized the Confederate commissioners, and carried them 
to Fort Warren in Boston harbor. The Secretary of the Navy 
officially congratulated Captain Wilkes on his capture of " these 
public enemies," and the House of Representatives requested the 
President to present him with a gold medal. 

The President, however, said he feared that we had simply 
caught a couple of "white elephants," and added, "We fought 
Great Britain (in 181 2) for insisting ... on the right to do 
precisely what Captain Wilkes has done." 



1 The chief fighting in Missouri was at Wilson's Creek, where the Union forces 
were overpowered by greatly superior numbers. The only fighting in Virginia during 
this time was at Ball's Bluff (October 22, 1861), where the national forces were 
defeated. 



1861-1862] THE WAR OF SECESSION 461 

The queen's proclamation of neutrality (§ 457) expressly for- 
bade her subjects carrying "officers, soldiers," or "dispatches" 
for either party in the Civil War ; but the English government 
denied that we were justified in seizing the Confederate com- 
missioners. It demanded their prompt surrender and a proper 
apology for the affront to the British flag, and hurried off troops 
to Canada with regimental bands gayly playing " Dixie " as 
they sailed. 

In the correspondence that ensued Secretary Seward stated in 
the smoothest diplomatic language that he was happy to find that 
England now condemned the right of search (§ 264), hitherto so 
stoutly maintained by her. He congratulated her on having at 
length become a convert to the American principle which had 
compelled us to protest against the exercise of such a pretended 
right. He closed by saying that, since the British nation now 
asked us to do to her just what we had always insisted all nations 
ought to do to us, we could not consistently refuse to give up 
Mason and Slidell. They soon sailed for England, but the Lon- 
don Times gave them anything but a complimentary welcome, 
saying, "We should have done just as much to rescue two of 
their own negroes." Later, when Louis Napoleon asked if the 
English Cabinet would join him in recognizing the independence 
of the Southern Confederacy, that body declined. Gladstone, 
who was a member of the Cabinet, said that it made the decision 
"without qualification, hesitation, delay, or dissent," In the 
end the commissioners failed to obtain the official recognition 
of any European power and accomplished nothing in behalf of 
secession, 

463. Fighting at the West; Grant takes Fort Henry and Fort 
Donelson. In the West, in the autumn of 1862, the Confederate 
general A. S. Johnston held an irregular line extending from the 
Cumberland Mountains through Mill Springs and Bowling Green, 
Kentucky, to the bluffs at Columbus on the Mississippi. Aside 
from Columbus, the two points of supreme importance on this 
line were Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, about twelve miles 



462 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1862 



apart, on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Halleck, with 
his headquarters at St. Louis, was then in command of the depart- 
ment of the Missouri, which embraced western Kentucky. Grant 
was stationed at Cairo, Illinois ; and Buell, with Thomas, was in 
command of the Union forces directly opposing Johnston's line. 

The campaign began in January, 1862, by a battle at Mill 
Springs, Kentucky, in which Thomas gained a brilliant victory 
and drove the Confederates out of eastern Kentucky. General 
Grant, supported by Commodore Foote's gunboats, then moved 




SCALE OF MtT-ES 



against Fort Henry and took it (February 6, 1862). He next 
moved against Fort Donelson. On the third day of the battle 
(February 16, 1862) Buckner, the Confederate commander, asked 
what terms his assailant would concede in return for the capitula- 
tion of the fort. Grant at once replied, " No terms except an 
unconditional and immediate surrender." Buckner could not 
help himself, and promptly accepted Grant's ultimatum. 

This victory was the most important which the national troops 
had thus far gained. It opened the Tennessee and Cumberland 



i 



1^ 




• ^ 



'^ 



1862] THE WAR OF SECESSION 463 

rivers for a long distance and compelled the Confederates to aban- 
don their stronghold at Columbus. This gave the Union army the 
control of the Mississippi as far south as Island Number Ten. 

464. The battle of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh ; capture of 
Island Number Ten ; Corinth. Grant now moved up the Tennes- 
see River for the purpose of capturing the great Confederate 
railway center at Corinth, Mississippi. He halted at Pittsburg 
Landing, or Shiloh, for Buell to come up from Nashville and join 
him. Before that general could arrive, A. S. Johnston, with 
superior numbers, suddenly attacked the Union forces (x\pril 6, 
1862). Johnston drove back Grant's army, but was killed in the 
thick of the fight and Beauregard took command. 

By the next morning Buell's reenforcements came up. Grant 
now had the larger force. By nightfall (April 7, 1862) he had 
gained the day and the Confederates were in full retreat. In his 
report Grant said : " I am indebted to General Sherman for the 
success of that battle. It was," he said, " the severest engage- 
ment^ fought at the West during the war." Grant was sharply 
blamed for his management of the first day's battle and the Presi- 
dent was urged to remove him. He deliberated for a time and 
then said, *' I can't spare this man ; he fights." 

On the day following the victory at Pittsburg Landing the 
Confederates surrendered Island Number Ten to the federal 
forces commanded by Commodore Foote and General Pope. 
This opened the Mississippi down to Vicksburg. In May Hal- 
leck moved on Corinth. Beauregard had not strength to hold it ; 
he withdrew and the Union army took possession of this important 
railway center. 

465. Battle of the " Merrimac " and the ''Monitor." Shortly 
after Virginia seceded (§ 451) the federal officer in charge of the 
armory at Harpers Ferry destroyed and abandoned it. Follow- 
ing his example, the federal officer in command at the Norfolk 

1 Grant says his effective force at Pittsburg Landing on April 6 was 33,000 ; 
Wallace and Buell brought him, after the first day's battle, 25,000 more. The 
Confederate force was about 40,000. Union loss, 13,047; Confederate loss, 10,669. 



464 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I86I-I862 

navy yard abandoned that important station with about 2000 
cannon. He set fire to the government buildings and scuttled 
and sunk the national war vessels. Among the ships thus de- 
stroyed was the steam frigate Merrimac. The Confederates 
raised the hulk and converted it into a powerful ironclad ram, 
which they christened the Virginia. 

Early in the spring (March 8, 1862) this formidable floating 
fort, under the command of Captain Buchanan, sailed out and 
attacked the federal fleet of wooden war ships lying in Hampton 
Roads. Making a dash at the Cumberland, the Vij-ginia cut that 
vessel nearly in two and sent her to the bottom with a hundred 
sick and wounded men. The Virginia next captured the Con- 
gress, set her on fire, and blew her up. The Confederate iron- 
clad then retired to Norfolk, intending to complete her work of 
destruction the next day. 

The news of this disaster caused great alarm at Washington. 
The President hastily summoned a Cabinet council. Stanton, the 
Secretary of War, expressed the fear that the "rebel monster" 
might even then be on her way up the Potomac. " It is not 
unlikely," said he, "that we shall have a shell or a cannon ball 
from one of her guns in the White House before we leave this 
room." 

That night, lighted by the flames of the burning Congress, 
Ericsson's Monitor, under the command of the gallant Lieutenant 
Worden, steamed into Hampton Roads. She was an iron vessel 
built on a new pattern, having a revolving turret set on a deck 
nearly level with the water. On Sunday morning (March 9, 
1862) when the Virginia appeared she found the diminutive 
Monitor waiting for her. The Confederates laughed at this 
Yankee "cheese box on a raft"; but the "cheese box" fought 
so effectively that the Virginia finally retired to Norfolk, leaving 
Ericsson's "little giant" practically master of the situation. 
When McClellan advanced up the peninsula in May (1862) the 
Confederates abandoned Norfolk and blew up their famous but 
discomfited ironclad. 



1861-1862] THE WAR OF SECESSION 465 

The Monitor had not only saved the remaining vessels of the 
federal fleet, but had probably saved Washington. Had the Vir- 
ginia come off victor, she might have steamed up the Potomac 
and shelled the national capital, besides doing incalculable damage 
in other directions. 

This conflict between the two ironclads revolutionized naval 
warfare throughout the world. It sent wooden war ships to the 
rear and brought iron vessels to the front. 

466. Summary of the first year of the war (April, 1861-April, 
1862). The capture of Fort Sumter was immediately followed by 
the President's call for troops, the uprising of the North, and the 
organization of the Confederate force in the South. The Union 
defeat at Bull Run led to a call for 500,000 more federal soldiers. 

In the West, the Confederates were driven out of Missouri, and 
their hne of defense was broken in Kentucky. Grant took Forts 
Henry and Donelson and thus compelled the evacuation of Colum- 
bus on the Mississippi. Grant then defeated Johnston at the 
terrible battle of Pittsburg Landing, thus preparing the way for 
the capture of Corinth. Island Number Ten was next captured 
and the Mississippi opened down to Vicksburg. 

On the water we have the seizure of Mason and Slidell, the 
capture of important Confederate ports on the Atlantic coast, and 
the great battle between the Merrimac and the Monitor. 



Second Year of the War (April, i862-April, 1863) 

467. The capture of New Orleans and its results. President 
Lincoln declared that he considered the Mississippi " the back- 
bone of the rebellion." In the spring of 1862 Captain Farragut, 
commanding the most powerful naval expedition that had ever 
sailed under the United States flag, started from Fort Monroe 
to capture New Orleans and fracture, if not break, the "back- 
bone." The land forces of the expedition were under General 
Butler. The fleet numbered nearly fifty wooden vessels, carrying 



466 'i'HE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [186-2 

over two hundred guns, besides a fleet of mortar boats under 
Commander Porter. 

Farragut had no easy task before him. In order to reach New 
Orleans he must break through a line of hulks chained together 
across the Mississippi, just below the forts of St. Philip and 
Jackson ; he must next run past the guns of those forts, steer 
clear of the fire rafts sent to destroy his wooden vessels, and 
finally fight a fleet of gunboats, which included two ironclad 
rams constructed on the pattern of the Virginia (§ 465). 

Porter began to shell the forts on April 18 (1862), and just 
one week from that day Farragut's fleet, '' silent, grim, terrible," 
anchored in front of the blazing levees of New Orleans. Four 
days later, the city formally surrendered, the " stars and stripes " 
were hoisted above the customhouse, and the national forces trium- 
phantly held the gateway of the river artery of the American conti- 
nent. Mason and Slidell (§ 462) wrote from Europe that the fall 
of the chief port of the Confederate States had probably given the 
deathblow to European recognition of southern independence. 

Farragut, having accomplished his great work, moved up the 
Mississippi against the Confederate strongholds at Port Hudson 
and Vicksburg; but the situation of these fortifications on high 
bluffs made it impossible for him to attack them successfully 
without the cooperation of a powerful land force. 

468. McClellan begins his Peninsular Campaign ; " Stonewall " 
Jackson's raid. Meanwhile McClellan began the second advance 
( § 460) on Richmond. The Confederate capital was protected from 
a direct movement from the north by several rivers and many small 
streams, and by a dense tangled forest known as the " Wilderness." 
On the east the peninsula between the York and the James rivers is 
low and swampy, and heavy rains make it almost impassable ; but 
as the distance from Fort Monroe on the peninsula to Richmond is 
but httle more than half what it is by direct march from Wash- 
ington, McClellan decided in favor of the short eastern route. 

Leaving about 36,000 troops to hold the Shenandoah Valley 
and northern Virginia, and McDowell at Fredericksburg with 



1862] THE WAR OF SECESSION 467 

40,000 troops to protect the national capital, he transported his 
superb army of 100,000 men to Fort Monroe. Early in April 
(•862), he began to move up the peninsula. A part of Joseph E. 
Johnston's force barred the way at Yorktown. Here McClellan 
spent a month getting his siege guns in position. Just as he was 
ready to open fire the Confederates abandoned their works and 
fell back to Williamsburg, where an indecisive battle was fought 
(Mays, 1862). 

McClellan then asked the War Department to send him every 
man that could be spared. The President promised to send 
McDowell's army ; but just then " Stonewall " Jackson (§ 460), 
with his famous "foot cavalry," dashed down the Shenandoah 
Valley and " hustled" Banks out of it and across the Potomac.^ 
Jackson's sudden movement created such consternation at Wash- 
ington that McDowell's 40,000 men were withheld from McClellan 
to defend the national capital. 

Jackson then turned and, keeping up a running fight, moved 
with such celerity that before McDowell could get a chance to 
strike him he had joined the main body of the Confederate forces 
in the vicinity of Richmond. He arrived in season to cooperate 
with Lee in his attack on McClellan, whose army was strad- 
dling the Chickahominy River and floundering in the mud. If 
McClellan's success depended on his getting heavy reenforce- 
ments, then Jackson had completely upset his plans. 

469. Fair Oaks ; the Seven Days' battles. There was sharp 
fighting (May 31 -June i, 1862) at Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines. 
In this action Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded, and a 
few days later, Robert E. Lee was put in command of the Confed- 
erate forces in Virginia. Only a short time before. General Lee 
had severely condemned slavery, and deprecated disunion ; but he 
now decided to draw his sword in behalf of both." 



1 Official estimate : The strength of Jackson's command is not stated, but Confed- 
erate authorities give him an effective force of from 16,000 to 17,000. The effective 
strength of Banks' command on April 30, 1861, was reported at 9178. 

2 See Lee's Letters (1856, 1861), cited in Long's Life of Lee, S^, S8. 



468 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1862 



McClellan now found himself cut off from his base of supplies 
on the York River, and was forced to set out for the James River 
to establish a new base. After seven days of terrible fighting, 
ending with the federal victory of Malvern Hill (July i, 1862), 
the Union commander reached Harrison Landing on the James, 
where he could receive the support of the fleet of federal gun- 
boats. Later, his forces were moved back to the vicinity of 

Washington, and the 




President issued a call 
for 300,000 more men 
(§ 508). 

McClellan attributed 
his failure to take Rich- 
mond to Secretary Stan- 
ton. He accused him 
of willfully holding back 
reenforcements, and 
wrote to him, "You 
have done your best to 
sacrifice this army." 
Military writers give 
McClellan credit for one 
of the most "brilliant 
retreats " ever executed in the face of an enemy. Lincoln wrote 
to him, "All accounts say better fighting was never done." But 
the Union losses in the campaign had been very heavy ; ^ and, 
though the Confederates had suffered greater losses, the North 
demanded that the next advance against Richmond should be 
led by a new commander. 

470. Pope takes the reins ; the second battle of Bull Run. 
Halleck (§ 463) was now (July 12, 1862) called from the West and 
made General in Chief of the Union forces. General Pope had 
done good service in the campaign against Island Number Ten 



1 Official estimate : Effective Union force, 105,445; Confederate force, 80,000 to 
90,000. Union loss, 15,849; Confederate loss, 20,135. 



1862] THE WAR OF SECESSION 469 

(§ 464), and he was put in command of a newly organized force, 
the "Army of .Virginia," intended to operate against Richmond. 
It was understood that part of McClellan's army would be taken 
to reenforce Pope. 

Pope proposed to move straight on the enemy and declared 
that he should establish his headquarters " in the saddle." He 
issued orders to his army to subsist on the country through which 
they moved, to hold the people responsible for Union property 
destroyed by " rebel raids," and to send all secessionists out of 
the federal Hnes. Pope advanced to the Rappahannock and 
there halted for reenforcements. "Stonewall" Jackson saw his 
opportunity : aided by Stuart's cavalry, he hurried down the 
Shenandoah Valley, passed through a gap in the mountains, got 
into the federal rear at Manassas, and captured or destroyed a 
large part of Pope's stores of ammunition and supplies.* 

A few days later, the Union commander met Lee's army near 
the old battlefield of Bull Run, or Manassas (§ 460). Pope 
asked for reenforcements and additional supplies of ammunition, 
but McClellan could not or would not send them to his rival 
in arms. Notwithstanding this disadvantage, the Confederate 
General Longstreet admits that Pope "made a splendid fight" 
(August 29-September I, 1862) ; but he was badly beaten.-^ 
He fell back to Washington, where his army was united with the 
"Army of the Potomac," and McClellan received the command. 

471 . Lee enters Maryland ; battles of Antietam and Fredericks- 
burg. Lee, at the head of 60,000 troops, flushed with victory, 
advanced northward. Now, while the "Copperheads" (§456) 
at the North were rampant over Pope's defeat he was confident 
that he could speedily conquer a peace. His gaunt, barefooted 
men, " flaunting their rags in the sunshine," crossed the Potomac 
above Washington and entered Frederick City singing " Mary- 
land, my Maryland " ; but Maryland failed to respond. Lee 

1 OfiRcial estimate : Union army, not less than 64,000 ; Confederate army, about 
54,000. Phisterer gives the Union loss (August 28-September i) at 16,000 and the 
Confederate loss at 11,500. * See map on page 457. 



470 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1862-1863 

issued a proclamation calling on the people to rise and throw off 
the "foreign yoke " of federal oppression; but not a man rose. 

Less than ten days later, McClellan met Lee's army at Antie- 
tam, or Sharpsburg.* There occurred (September 17, 1862) the 
"bloodiest single day of fighting of the war." Whole regiments 
of raw recruits went to their graves, and the cornfield where the 
chief part of the battle raged was covered with windrows of 
the slain. At the end of the terrible day Lee retreated across 
the Potomac, leaving McClellan in possession of the field.^ The 
President begged McClellan not to let Lee get off " without being 
hurt"; but that general moved so slowly in pursuit that Lincoln 
finally lost all patience and gave the command of the Union army 
(November 5, 1862) to Burnside, who reluctantly accepted the 
perilous honor thus thrust upon him. 

When Burnside advanced against Richmond he encountered 
Lee at Fredericksburg,! strongly intrenched along the hills on the 
south bank of the Rappahannock. The Union army crossed 
the river and attacked him (December 13, 1862); but neither 
the " superb " Hancock nor " Fighting Joe " Hooker could 
carry the heights. Burnside lost heavily and was obliged to 
retreat.^ 

The next month (January 25, 1863) Hooker was placed in 
command of the " Army of the Potomac," but he did not make 
any general movement against Lee until late in the spring. 

472. Slavery and the war ; Butler's "contrabands." The win- 
ter of 1863 was one of the dark periods of the contest for the 
Union. The " Copperheads," like Vallandigham, whether in 
Congress or out, were denouncing the government as " one of 
the worst despotisms on earth," ^ and (§456) were uttering 

1 Official estimate : McClellan reported the Union force at 87,164, but the brunt 
of the battle was borne by not above 60,000 of this number. Lee does not give the 
strength of his army, but says in his official report that less than 40,000 men on his 
side took part in the battle. Union loss, 12,410; Confederate loss, 11,172. 

2 Official estimate: Effective Union force, 113,000; effective Confederate force, 
about 60,000. Union loss, 12,653; Confederate loss, 5377. * See map on page 457. 

3 See Johnston's American Orations, IV, 82. t See map on page 457. 



1863] THE WAR OF SECESSION 471 

gloomy predictions of impending disaster, x^t the same time 
"Bull Run" Russell, the correspondent of the London Times, 
was busily engaged in Lee's camp in gathering material for a 
history of the Decline and Fall of the American Republic, At 
this period, on New Year's Day, 1863, the President issued his 
Proclamation of Emancipation. 

Neither the President nor Congress had looked forward to this 
decisive action. Events had forced it. Lincoln, as we have 
seen (§ 448), entered office making the explicit declaration that 
he would not in any way interfere with slavery at the South. 
After the great contest in behalf of the nation's life actually 
began. Secretary Seward told our minister at Paris that no matter 
what might be the issue of the war, "the condition of slavery" 
would "remain just the same." 

A few months later (July 24, 1861), the special session of 
Congress (§ 450) resolved, by a nearly unanimous vote, that what- 
ever battles they might be called upon to fight, they would not 
touch slavery. This resolution met the entire approval not only 
of the great body of conservative men at the North but of military 
men as well. Neither McClellan nor any other of the prominent 
early leaders in the LTnion army had any intention of helping the 
negroes to acquire their freedom. 

Wendell Phillips said w^ith truth that while " the South fought 
to sustain slavery, the North fought not to have it hurt." The 
northern people felt that the Constitution protected slavery, and 
they would not willfully and openly violate the great charter of 
the Republic. They acknowledged the inconsistency of batthng 
against secession and yet letting the secessionists have the use of 
the negro to help the cause of disunion. 

General Butler first saw how to cut the knot. Three fugitive 
slaves, the property of a Confederate officer in Virginia, fled to 
him at Fort Monroe (May 23, 186 1) and begged for protec- 
tion. Butler knew that if he returned them to their master they 
would be sent South to build " rebel fortifications." The owner 
of the negroes demanded their return under the Fugitive-Slave 



472 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I86I-I862 

Law (§ 414), but General Butler refused to surrender them. He 
declared that the Fugitive-Slave Act did not affect a foreign 
country, which Virginia then claimed to be.^ "These men," 
said he, "are contraband of war. I will hold them and use 
them in behalf of the Union." The word "contraband" struck 
the slave system a staggering blow. Butler soon had nearly a 
thousand " contrabands " at work on the national defenses at 
Fort Monroe. His action was officially approved by the Presi- 
dent, by Congress, 'by the Secretary of War, and by a majority 
of those who were resolved to put down secession if it cost the 
North's "last man and last dollar." 

In the course of the summer Congress passed (August 6, 186 1) 
a confiscation act^ setting free all slaves used by the Confed- 
erates in military operations within the seceded states. The Con- 
federate government retahated by confiscating all debts due to 
northern merchants, and the estates of all northern men at the 
South, unless they supported the war against the Union. But 
this act of Congress did not apply to the border slave states or 
to the great mass of slaves in the Confederate States ; and when 
General Fremont issued a proclamation of emancipation in Mis- 
souri (186 1) and General Hunter did the same (1862) in South 
CaroHna, the President declared both proclamations void. 

473. Lincoln's scheme of compensated emancipation; District 
of Columbia ; the territories. In his message to Congress in the 
spring of 1862 the President strongly recommended a scheme of 
compensated emancipation. He urged the nation to offer to 
" cooperate with any state which may adopt gradual abolition of 
slavery," and to give " to such state pecuniary aid." A resolu- 
tion passed both Houses of Congress to that effect,^ but nothing 
came of it, for the South could not see its way toward giving up 
African servitude, since aside from any question of self-interest 
the people of that section felt that they would be confronted 
with the problem of what to do with a large population of free 

1 See Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, IV, No. 124. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 11. 3 ibid., No. 17. 



1861-1862] THE WAR OF SECESSION 473 

negroes. A little later (April 16, 1862), Congress purchased, at 
an expense of nearly a million dollars, the slaves held in the 
District of Columbia — about 4000 in all — and gave them their 
liberty.^ 

Congress next (June 19, 1862) applied the principle of the 
Wilmot Proviso (§ 404) to the territories. This act^ set aside 
"Popular Sovereignty" (§422) and the Dred Scott decision 
(§434) by prohibiting slavery forever within any part of the 
public domain. 

474. Lincoln's reply to Greeley's letter on emancipation. As far 
back as 1836 John Quincy Adams declared that if the slavery 
question should ever excite civil war, the President of the United 
States had power to free the negroes. Thaddeus Stevens, one of 
the great Republican leaders in Congress, urged the government 
to begin the work of emancipation and offered a bill to that 
effect. Late in the summer of 1862 Horace Greeley addressed 
an open letter to the President. He entitled it " The Prayer of 
Twenty Millions," and begged him to enforce the recent acts of 
Congress granting " freedom to the slaves of rebels coming within 
our lines " (§ 472). 

No one detested negro bondage more than Lincoln did. " If 
slavery is not wrong," said he, " nothing is wrong." No one saw 
more clearly than he that the negro question was the taproot of 
the Civil War. " Without slavery," said he, '' the rebellion could 
never have existed ; without slavery it could not continue." 

But the President was still uncertain whether it would be wise 
for him to take the course which Stevens and Greeley urged. In 
reply to the latter's letter he wrote (August 22, 1862): "My 
paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not 
either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union 
without freeing any slave I would do it ; and if I could save it 
by freeing all the slaves I would do it ; and if I could save it by 
freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." He 
felt then that the times were critical, and that if he should issue a 
1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 18. 2 ibid., No. 20. 



474 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1862-1863 

proclamation of emancipation it might alienate the border states 
and, as he said, send " 50,000 bayonets " from those states " over 
to the rebels." ^ 

475. Proclamation of warning. When Lee first entered Mary- 
land (§ 471) the President made a solemn vow that if the invader 
should be driven back he would send the proclamation after him. 
Lee was driven back (§ 471) and Lincoln issued (September 22, 
1862) a proclamation warning the seceded states that if they did 
not lay down their arms and return to their allegiance within one 
hundred days, namely, on January i, 1863, he should declare all 
of their slaves ''forever free." The governors of thirteen loyal 
states, at a meeting held at Altoona, Pennsylvania, hailed this 
action with " heartfelt gratitude." At midnight of the last day 
of the year (1862) thousands of negroes, both bond and free, 
prayed that God would take pity on them and would strengthen 
the hands of Abraham Lincoln to carry out his great purpose on 
the following day. 

476. The Proclamation of Emancipation (1863). Promptly on 
the first day of the New Year (1863) the President issued his final 
proclamation.^ It set free forever all slaves held in the sections 
then fighting against the Union. Thousands of these slaves were 
then raising corn to feed the Confederate armies, and thousands 
more were working on Confederate fortifications. For the first 
time in the history of the war the government had struck seces- 
sion at its root, and had dealt it a deathblow. The President 
declared that this " act of justice " was warranted " by the Con- 
stitution upon military necessity " ; he invoked for it " the 
considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of 
Almighty God." ^ But further action was necessary in order to 
prevent the reestablishment of slavery after the war. For this 
reason, two years later (1865), Congress passed the thirteenth 



1 See Lincoln's Works, II, 227, 235. 2 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 28. 

3 The war powers of the President, says Professor Burgess, justified the Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation as a temporary measure ; but they did not authorize him " to fix the 
permanent or civil status of anybody," Burgess' Civil War, II, 117, 



REDUCED COPY OF A PART OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 
(Jan. I, 1863). 

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s.y4yurU Uu^' t?^ CKUT /U-i^^CJi..^ >^e^<i,<^.<-e^ jt3 £^ 




1863] THE WAR OF SECESSION 



475 



amendment to the Constitution. The members of the House then 
joined in singing the doxology. The amendment confirmed the 
Proclamation of Emancipation and extended it to all slaves held 
in any part of the United States (see Appendix, page xvii). 

The system of African servitude which the southern people 
had inherited from the colonial period victimized master and 
slave alike. It fell to the lot of Lincoln, the son of a " poor 
white" (§ 176), to emancipate both. He completed the great 
work of the '' Fathers of the Republic" by including the negro 
in that Declaration of Independence which affirms that all men 
are created with an equal right to " Hfe, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness." 

477. Economic, political, and military results of emancipation ; 
prisoners of war. From an economic point of view the act wrought 
an industrial revolution. The South estimated that it had ^2,000,- 
000,000 invested in negroes; the proclamation did not destroy 
this investment, but simply transferred it to a new owner, giving 
the slave possession of himself. 

Politically speaking, the proclamation temporarily hurt the 
administration and reduced the Republican majority in Congress. 
In the end, however, it proved to be a source of strength, for it 
changed the whole character of the war. Hitherto the North had 
been fighting to restore the Union as it stood before secession, that 
is, to save " a house divided against itself," half free and half slave. 
But henceforth the national forces would fight to perfect the Union 
by making it wholly free. Abroad, the proclamation strengthened 
the cause of the Union and practically destroyed the possibility of 
foreign recognition of the Confederacy.^ 

Furthermore, emancipation had an important military result. 
It cleared the way for the unrestricted enlistment of the negro.^ 
Before 1863 came to a close 50,000 '' freedmen " had entered 



1 See Johnston's American Orations, IV, 93. 

2 In August, 1862, the government of the United States gave permission, for the 
first time, to the military governor of the coast islands of South Carolina to recruit 
5000 volunteers of African descent. 



476 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i863 

the army and navy of the United States. Under the Enrollment 
Act^ of 1864 this number was eventually increased to about 
180,000. Grant praised the gallant behavior of these new 
recruits. At Vicksburg, Mobile, Fort Wagner, Fort Pillow, and 
other points they mingled their blood with that of the white 
soldiers who gave their lives for the Republic. 

The Confederate authorities refused (May i, 1863) to exchange 
negro prisoners of war or their white officers captured in battle. 
As the United States felt obliged to protect all, whether black or 
white, who entered its service, the national government refused 
to exchange at all until the South would recede from the stand it 
had taken. This deadlock led to the frightful overcrowding and 
terrible mortality at Andersonville and other Confederate prisons.^ 
Later, the need of men forced the secession authorities to offer to 
exchange black soldiers for white ; but as the Union forces were 
then nearing the point of final victory. General Grant refused to 
consider the offer. He said that he " did not deem it advisable or 
just to the men who had to fight our battles to reenforce the enemy 
with thirty or forty thousand disciplined troops at that time." 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 36. 

2 There is no accurate report of the number of Union prisoners who died in 
Confederate prisons and prison pens at the South ; but it is estimated that out of 
about 188,000 federal soldiers captured by the Confederates, half were paroled, and 
that 36,000 of the remaining half died in captivity. The Union armies captured 
476,000 Confederates ; of these 227,000 were retained as prisoners ; of these 30,000 
died. The rate of mortality in the northern prisons was 13 in 100 ; that in southern 
prisons was 38 in 100, or nearly three times greater. See Nicolay and Hay's Lin- 
coln, VII, 444, and Congressional Report on Treatment of Prisoners, No. 45, 40th 
Congress. A comparison of the two prison systems shows that the deaths in the 
southern prisons were caused in large degree by want of proper food, overcrowding, 
filth, and exposure to the weather. At Andersonville 35,000 prisoners were huddled 
together without shelter in a field of twenty-seven acres, the center of which was a 
pestilential swamp. The Confederate inspector reported that the prison pen was 
a " disgrace to civilization." At the end of the war Henry Wirz, the Swiss com- 
mandant at Andersonville, was convicted by court-martial of cruel treatment of 
Union prisoners, and was hanged November 10, 1865. The greater part of the 
deaths in the northern prisons appear to have been caused by the fact that the prison- 
ers were often not in good physical condition when they entered them, and next because 
they were poorly clad and not able to bear the rigor of the northern winter. All the 
reports agree that the Confederate prisoners were not overcrowded and that they had 
good and sufficient rations. 



1862] THE WAR OF SECESSION 477 

Like Washington in the Revolution, Grant took this stand respect- 
ing exchange in order not to prolong the contest. The sooner the 
war ended, the sooner all prisoners would be set at liberty. 

478. Operations in the West; Bragg invades Kentucky; battle 
of Perryville. Late in the summer of 1862, Bragg, the successor 
of Beauregard (§ 464), started from Chattanooga on an expedition 
northward. He invaded Kentucky, hoping to obtain supplies for 
his hungry men and to get possession of the state for the Confed- 
erates. Buell (§ 463) held Tennessee. Finding that Bragg was 
hurrying to get into Louisville, the chief city of Kentucky, Buell 
set off with all speed for the same place, won the race, and then 
turned on Bragg. The Confederate general retreated as far as 
Perryville.* When Buell came up a sharp battle ensued (Octo- 
ber 8, 1862) in which both sides lost heavily.-^ The next morning 
Bragg retreated through the Cumberland Gap on his way back 
toward Chattanooga. He succeeded in getting off with a long 
wagon train of plunder. Buell was censured for letting Bragg 
escape him, and his command was turned over to General 
Rosecrans. 

479. Battles of luka and Corinth ; Grant's first attack on 
Vicksburg ; battle of Murfreesboro. Meanwhile the Confederates 
made a desperate effort to drive the Union forces out of Corinth 
(§464); but in the battles of luka (September 19, 1862) and 
Corinth (October 3, 4, 1862) they met with a severe repulse. 

In November Halleck (§ 463), who was now General in Chief, 
put General Grant in command of about 50,000 troops and told 
him to fight the enemy where he pleased. Grant determined to 
move against Vicksburg, the most important stronghold held by 
the Confederates on the Mississippi. He ordered Sherman, then 
at Memphis, to move down the river and, with the help of Porter's 
gunboats, attack the city from the rear. 

1 Official estimate : Union force, 54,000, but perhaps not more than half of these 
actually took part in the battle; Bragg reports the Confederate force at only 15,000, 
but he appears to have had not less than 68,000 in the field. Union loss, 4211; 
Confederate loss, 3396. * See map on page 462. 



478 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1862-1863 

Grant himself undertook to prevent Pemberton and his Con- 
federate force in northern Mississippi from going to the aid of 
Vicksburg. Suddenly a troop of Confederate cavalry swooped 
down on Grant's base of supplies at Holly Springs, burned them 
(December 20, 1862), and so compelled the Union commander 
to fall back.* Sherman, who knew nothing of Grant's misfortune, 
advanced (December 27, 1862), but encountered natural obsta- 
cles which prevented his accomplishing anything. 

Rosecrans (§478) was preparing to move from his headquar- 
ters at Nashville against Bragg (§478) at Chattanooga. Bragg 
came out to meet him. At Murfreesboro on Stone River, Ten- 
nessee, one of the most hotly contested battles of the war was 
fought (December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863). (See map of Ten- 
nessee in § 463.) Sheridan and Thomas saved the day for the 
Union army and the Confederate general retreated in the night to 
Tullahoma.^ The battle of Murfreesboro compelled the Confed- 
erate commander to give up his attempt to break through the 
Union line which defended the free states against invasion. 

480. Summary of the second year of the war (April, 1862- 
April, 1863). The second year of the war opened with Farragut's 
capture of New Orleans. This was the great military success of 
the year in the southwest. It was followed by Bragg's raid into 
Kentucky, Grant's unsuccessful attack on Vicksburg, and Bragg's 
repulse at Murfreesboro. 

In the East, McClellan's indecisive Peninsular Campaign was 
followed by Pope's defeat at the second battle of Bull Run. 
Lee then advanced into Maryland, but was driven back at 
Antietam. Burnside attacked him at Fredericksburg and was 
forced to retreat. On New Year's Day, 1863, the President 
issued his Proclamation of Emancipation. This gave the war a 
new character ; henceforth it was to be a contest not to restore 
the nation with slavery untouched, but to make it wholly /r^^. 

1 Official estimate: Effective Union force, 43,400; Confederate force, 37,712. 
Union loss in the campaign, 13,249; Confederate loss, 10,266. 
* See map on page 486. 



1863] THE WAR OF SECESSION 479 

Third Year of the War (April, 1863-ApRiL, 1864) 

481. Battle of Chancellorsville. In the spring of 1863 "Fight- 
ing Joe" Hooker, Burnside's successor (§471), moved against 
Lee, who was intrenched at Fredericksburg on the Rappahan- 
nock. Hooker established his headquarters at the farmhouse 
of Chancellorsville on the edge of the "Wilderness" (§468). 
There (May 2, 1863) the fighting began. Lee sent "Stonewall" 
Jackson (§460) round with a force 20,000 strong to fall on 
Hooker's rear. Jackson's attack was a complete surprise and 
threw the federal army into confusion. The coming on of night 
saved it from defeat. After the battle Jackson, while reconnoiter- 
ing, was fired upon and fell mortally wounded. In losing him 
Lee had lost his "right arm." 

The battle was resumed the next day. At a critical moment 
a cannon ball struck a pillar of the farmhouse against which 
Hooker was leaning, and the concussion knocked him sense- 
less to the ground. When he fully recovered the day was lost 
and that night the national forces retreated across the Rappa- 
hannock.-^ 

482. Lee's advance into Pennsylvania; discontent at the North; 
draft riots ; first day's battle at Gettysburg. The President 
wrote to Hooker (June 10, 1863), "If he (Lee) stays where 
he is, fret him and fret him." But Lee had already determined 
to make a second invasion of the North (§471). He is reported 
to have said that he believed he "would swap queens "; in other 
words, let Hooker take the Confederate capital, if he could, while 
he moved on the checkerboard of war against Washington. 

Many events seemed to unite in encouraging Lee to take this 
step. Burnside and Hooker had been defeated in the East 
(§§471, 481); Grant had failed in his attempt to take Vicks- 
burg (§ 479) ; the desertions from the Union army averaged, at 
one time, two hundred a day; Congressman Vallandigham of 

1 Official estimate : Effective Union force, 130,000 ; effective Confederate force, 
not less than 60,000. Union loss, 12,145 ; Confederate loss, 12,463. 



48o 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1863 



Ohio had been arrested for treasonable utterances against the 
government and sent into the Confederacy, and several other 
well-known men were denouncing the President as a "tyrant" 
and the war as " wicked slaughter." 

In order to fill the ranks the government ordered a draft.-^ 
Resistance to this measure was openly threatened, and when, a 
little later (July 13-16), an attempt was made in New York to 
enforce it trouble began. A mob set fire to buildings, attacked 
newspaper offices, hanged negroes, and for four days held the city 
at their mercy. The police were powerless to check the rioters ; 
but a body of regular troops speedily dispersed them, though not 
until about a thousand were killed and wounded. 

The knowledge of this element of discontent and turbulence 
at the North greatly encouraged Lee in his invasion ; but he 
made the mistake of supposing that it 
represented the attitude of the majority 
of the people. 

Concealed by the mountain wall of the 
Shenandoah Valley, he advanced, crossed 
the Potomac, and entered Pennsylvania. 
Hooker followed, but at this juncture he 
was relieved of his command (June 28, 
1863) and General Meade was placed at 
the head of the " Army of the Potomac." 
On the same day Lee began his advance 
upon Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsyl- 
vania ; but hearing that the Union army was in his rear, and fear- 
ing that his communication with Richmond might be cut, he 
ordered his entire army to move on Gettysburg, where he could 
threaten either Harrisburg or Baltimore. 

Gettysburg lies on a slope at the foot of two ridges. The 
nearer one, shaped like a fishhook, is known as Cemetery Ridge. 
It is about five miles in length and is marked by three eleva- 
tions, — Gulp's Hill, at the barb of the hook, and Little Round 
1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 31 ; Rhodes' United States, IV, 321-328. 





48] 



482 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1863 

Top, followed by Round Top at the extremity of the shank. 
Opposite, a little more than a mile away, rises Seminary Ridge. 
Neither army originally thought of fighting here, but at this point 
the first and last great battle on free soil was to be fought. 

On the morning of July i, 1863, the Confederate force struck 
the federal advance at Gettysburg. The brave Reynolds was 
killed while forming the Union line of battle and his men 
were driven back through the town to Cemetery Ridge. There 
they took up a very strong position where the crest of the Ridge 
would hide their movements from the observation of the enemy. 
Lee's whole army as it arrived took possession of the opposite 
height of Seminary Ridge. 

483. The second day's battle at Gettysburg. Hancock reached 
the field that evening, and on hearing his report, Meade ordered 
the entire Union force to advance to Gettysburg. The Union 
commander resolved to hold Cemetery Ridge and fight a defen- 
sive battle. This gave him a decided advantage, since he not 
only had the greater force, but Lee's men in order to attack him 
must move across the broad, open valley, where they would be 
the target of the Union fire. On the other hand, the Confed- 
erates held ground which enabled them to employ their batteries 
with much greater effect than was possible for the Union men. 

On the second day of the battle the Confederates, at heavy loss 
to themselves, drove back General Sickles from a position he had 
taken at the Peach Orchard opposite, just in front of Cemetery 
Ridge. They then made a determined movement to get posses- 
sion of Little Round Top, which the Union forces had neglected 
to occupy. By desperate fighting Meade's men secured and held 
the coveted height, — the true key of the battlefield. On the other 
hand, the Confederates pierced Meade's center and a detachment 
got a temporary foothold on a part of Gulp's Hill, but they were 
driven from it early the next morning. 

484. The final battle at Gettysburg ; Pickett's charge (July 3, 
1863). On the third and last day (July 3, 1863) Lee, against 
Longstreet's advice, decided to make a grand assault on the Union 



1863] THE WAR OF SECESSION 483 

center, held by Hancock. At one o'clock the Confederate bat- 
teries opened a terrific artillery fire, which was kept up for nearly 
two hours. The guns of the national forces hurled back defiance, 
and the whole valley between the two ridges was alive with shot 
and shell. While this furious cannonade was going on Lee sent 
Stuart's cavalry round to attack the Union rear; but Meade's 
cavalry met and defeated them in a " saber fight." 

After a time the Union commander ordered the artillery to cease 
firing, in order that their guns might cool. Lee believed he had 
silenced the national batteries, and at three o'clock gave the order 
for General Pickett to charge. Pickett started at the head of a 
magnificent triple line of troops a mile long, numbering 15,000. 
Hancock's men, intrenched behind a stone wall, awaited the attack. 
Both sides realized that this was to be the death grapple. The 
Confederate force, the flower of Virginia, had to cross a level space 
over a mile in width. As they advanced the Union batteries 
opened upon them and tore great gaps in their ranks ; but the 
main body of the assailing column pressed steadily forward with- 
out firing a shot or uttering a sound. As they dashed up to the 
Union line, a terrific front and flank fire swept great numbers of 
the " men in gray " out of existence and drove others to turn and 
fly or throw down their arms. 

General Armistead led the remnant of Pickett's column. Hold- 
ing up his cap on the point of his sword as a guide to his men, 
he leaped over the stone wall crying, " Boys, give them the cold 
steel ! " The next instant he fell riddled with bullets. A brief 
hand-to-hand fight ensued, then all was over.^ Here, at a point 
since marked by an appropriate monument, the great wave of 
attack reached its high- water mark; here its terrible force was 
spent and the tide turned, never to rise again.^ One look at the 

1 See Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, IV, No. 120. 

2 Official estimate : Effective Union force (June 30), 101,679; Confederate force, 
77,518. The actual Union force in the field was probably about 93,500 and the Con- 
federate at least 70,000. Union loss, 23,003 ; Confederate loss, 20,451. No two author- 
ities agree as to the number of men in Pickett's column. Longstreet (Manassas to 
Appomattox, page 314) says 15,000. 



484 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

field of battle showed that the Union force had won ; it showed, 
too, the truth of Wellington's words, " A great victory is the sad- 
dest thing in the world, except a great defeat." Forty years after- 
ward General Longstreet magnanimously declared that he was 
thankful that the Confederates suffered that defeat (§ 513). 

Meade's losses were so heavy that he judged it best not to pur- 
sue the retreating Confederates and bring on another battle. Lee 
crossed the Potomac unmolested and once more took up his line 
of defense before Richmond. A few months later, a part of the 
field at Gettysburg was dedicated as a national mihtary cemetery, 
and the President, standing on the battle-consecrated height, 
delivered that address which will live as long as the memory of 
the conflict that inspired it. 

485. The capture of Vicksburg ; how Grant accomplished it. 
From a military point of view the Fourth of July, 1863, was the 
most memorable day in our national history since the close of 
the Revolution. On that day the telegraph flashed the news of the 
victory of Gettysburg throughout the loyal North ; on that day, 
too, Grant entered the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg. 

Vicksburg was the " Gibraltar of the West." Standing on a clay 
bluff rising perpendicularly two hundred feet above the Mississippi, 
it defied attack in front. On the north it was protected, as Sher- 
man had found to his cost (§ 479), by a network of almost impas- 
sable bayous and swamps. On the south and rear it could only be 
approached by climbing steep ridges cut by deep ravines. 

Grant arrived on the west bank of the Mississippi just above 
Vicksburg in January, 1863. He made up his mind that the true 
way to attack the place would be to go back to Memphis, a dis- 
tance of about two hundred miles, make that city his base of sup- 
plies, and then move his army down along the line of railway to 
the rear of Vicksburg. But political reasons, he says, forbade his 
adopting this course. 

It was a period of gloom and doubt at the North. McClellan's 
movement on Richmond had failed, Pope had been defeated at Bull 
Run, and Lee had got away from Antietam and was once more 



FACSIMILE OF MR, LINCOLN'S AUTOGRAPHIC COPY OF THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, MADE 
BY HIM FOR THE SOLDIERs' AND SAILORS' FAIR AT BALTIMORE, IN 1864 

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1863] THE WAR OF SECESSION 485 

defiant. The election of 1862 gave no encouragement to the 
vigorous prosecution of the contest against secession. " Many 
strong Union men," says Grant, " beheved that the war must 
prove a failure."^ Voluntary enhstments had nearly ceased and 
the draft was resisted. Under these circumstances he feared that 
the North would regard any backward movement as a retreat ; for 
this reason he finally determined to move down the western bank 
of the river, cross over, and then attack Vicksburg from the rear. 

Grant had to solve the problem (i) of getting his army of over 
40,000 men past the Vicksburg batteries, and (2) of crossing the 
Mississippi and securing a base of operations south of the city. 
The land on which the long line of Union forces was encamped 
was low and swampy, and incessant rains made it difficult for the 
troops to find ground on which to pitch their tents. 

The winter was spent in endeavoring to turn the Mississippi 
from its course by digging a canal across the peninsula opposite 
Vicksburg so that the army might be moved south by water. This 
work, with other attempts of a similar character, failed ; but, as 
Grant says, it served the important end of diverting the attention 
of the enemy, keeping a part of the troops busy, and pacifying 
the impatience of the press. 

486. Grant crosses the river; campaign against Johnston and 
Pemberton. When spring came and the water had receded so 
that marching became practicable Grant gave orders to move. 
Porter, having protected his gunboats with bales of cotton and 
hay, ran past the Vicksburg batteries in the night (April 16, 
1863). Grant's army then marched down the west bank a dis- 
tance of about seventy miles, and on the last of April (1863) 
Porter's fleet began to ferry the men across the river. Pember- 
ton, the Confederate general, had a force about 40,000 strong 
in and around Vicksburg. He attempted to prevent the Union 
army from landing, but without success. 

General Joseph E. Johnston (§ 468) hurried up to Jackson, the 
capital of Mississippi, with reenforcements from Tennessee for 

1 See Grant's Memoirs, I, 443, 444, 446, 449. 



486 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1863 



Pemberton. Grant at once moved eastward on Jackson and 
drove Johnston out of the place (May 14, 1863). He then 
destroyed the railways centering there and the manufactories of 
military goods, and so cut off Pemberton' s supplies, all of which 
had come through Jackson. 

Grant next turned on Pemberton, who had come out from Vicks- 
burg to join Johnston. He whipped the Confederate commander 

in a battle at Cham- 
pion Hills (May 16, 
1863), and the next 
day at the bridge over 
the Big Black River 
he defeated him 
again. Pemberton 
then fled back to 
Vicksburg and shut 
himself up in that 
stronghold with his 
army, reduced to 
about 28,000 men. 
Grant followed and 
made two attempts 
to take the city by 
assault. Failing to 
force an entrance, 
he fortified his rear 
100 150 against Johnston and 

towards the last of May (1863) sat down to begin the famous 
siege of Vicksburg. 

487. Siege and capture of Vicksburg; fall of Port Hudson. 
The " boys in blue " set to work with a will. They dug trenches 
by the mile and set up batteries by the score. For nearly 
seven weeks Porter's fleet on one side and the Union army on 
the other kept up an incessant fire on the doomed city. Mean- 
while the opposing forces were digging mines and countermines 




SCALE OF MILES 



-U-U- 




— — - TracTi of Gen. Grant 

Track of Admiral Porter 



S . Union Victories 



Siege of Vicksburg 



487 



488 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

to blow each other up. The pitiless storm of shells drove many 
of the inhabitants of Vicksburg from their homes. They bur- 
rowed in the sides of the hills for safety until the place was 
so honeycombed with caves that the streets looked like avenues 
of tombs in a cemetery. Late in June (1863) the Union men 
blew up a fort they had mined, and, rushing into the breach, 
tried again to take Vicksburg by assault, but they met with a 
decided repulse. 

The provisions in the city were getting dangerously low. The 
chief engineer of the Vicksburg defenses says that mule meat 
and rats were regarded as "delicacies." Meanwhile the sick and 
wounded were increasing so fast that the number at length reached 
6000. Many of Pemberton's men began to lose heart, and said 
to him in a written appeal, " If you can't feed us, you had better 
surrender us." 

Finally, the Confederate commander decided to hang out the 
white flag. He knew that Grant was making preparations for a 
grand assault ; he knew, too, that even if his worn-out men could 
repulse the attack, they could not repulse starvation. Negotia- 
tions were completed at the very time that Meade's forces were 
driving back Lee at Gettysburg (§ 484). The victorious Union 
army entered the town on the Fourth of July (1863), and were 
soon sharing their provisions with those whom they had so recently 
been engaged in " starving out." ^ 

Nearly 32,000 prisoners (noncombatants included) were taken, 
besides many cannon and great quantities of small arms.^ General 
Badeau says it was " the largest capture of men and material ever 
made in war," Napoleon's campaigns not excepted. 

Port Hudson (§ 467) below Vicksburg capitulated to General 
Banks a few days later (July 9, 1863). The South no longer held 
a fort or a battery on the Mississippi. The Confederacy was fairly 

iSee Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, IV, No. 119. 

2 Official estimate: Union force at the beginning of the Vicksburg campaign, 
43,000 ; at its close, 75,000. Confederate force under Pemberton, over 40,000 ; 
reduced before the siege of Vicksburg to 28,000. Union loss, 9362; Confederate 
loss, probably over 10,000. 



1863] THE WAR OF SECESSION 489 

and finally cut in two, and the " Father of Waters," as Lincoln 
declared, once more rolled " unvexed to the sea." 

488. Battle of Chickamauga. While Grant was besieging Vicks- 
burg (§ 487), Rosecrans (§ 479), in his brilliant Tullahoma campaign 
here (Jmie 24-July 7, 1863), drove Bragg across the Tennessee into 
Chattanooga, and then, by threatening his communications, drove 
him out across the Georgia line. Bragg, having received reenforce- 
ments, turned on his pursuer at Chickamauga. Two severe bat- 
tles were fought (September 19, 20, 1863), in which Rosecrans 
was badly beaten. Thomas saved the Union army from destruc- 
tion. He held his ground, repulsed a force much larger than his 
own, and then fell back in good order to Chattanooga. In admi- 
ration of the stubborn courage of their commander, the Union 
troops named Thomas the " Rock of Chickamauga." He now 
superseded Rosecrans and took command of the army he had 
saved.^ 

489. Bragg besieges Chattanooga ; battles of Lookout Mountain 
and Missionary Ridge. Bragg pursued the Union forces to Chat- 
tanooga and intrenched himself on the heights of Lookout 
Mountain and Missionary Ridge above the town. He then 
destroyed the railway connecting Chattanooga with Nashville; 
this cut off Thomas from his base of supplies. Grant saw that 
the situation was fast getting desperate and sent word to Thomas 
to hold on if possible until he could bring him help. The 
" Rock of Chickamauga " replied, " I will hold on till we starve." 

Meanwhile Bragg, feeling confident that he had the Union 
army in a trap, sent off part of his forces under Longstreet to 
capture Burnside in Knoxville. Longstreet failed to compel 
Burnside to surrender and withdrew to strengthen Lee at 
Richmond. 

Grant, with Sherman, Sheridan, and Hooker, hastened to the 
assistance of Thomas and ordered him to open the Chattanooga 
campaign (November 23, 1863). The next day Hooker swept 

1 Official estimate: Union force, 56,965; Confederate force, 71,551. Union loss, 
16,179; Confederate loss, 17,804. 



490 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

Bragg' s force from Lookout Mountain in the famous '' Battle above 
the Clouds" (November 24, 1863) and planted the "stars and 
stripes " on the crest of the height. 

The day following (November 25, 1863) Sherman, supported 
by Thomas and Sheridan, led the attack on Missionary Ridge. 
When the Union men had stormed the first line of Confederate 
rifle pits the order to halt was given. But instead of stopping, 
the men with ringing cheers started up the steep sides of the 
Ridge and, scrambling over bowlders and fallen trees, charged 
Bragg's flying forces with irresistible fury.^ Bragg fell back across 
the Georgia line to Dalton to protect Atlanta ; here he was super- 
seded by Joseph E. Johnston (§ 486). 

490. Sherman's raid on Meridian ; Grant made General in Chief. 
Early in February (1864) Grant dispatched Sherman westward 
to destroy Meridian, Mississippi. It was a place of great impor- 
tance to the Confederates on account of the railways centering 
there. Sherman set 10,000 men at the work of destruction. 
They labored with all their might for nearly a week. Nothing 
was left of the town that axes or sledge hammers could smash 
or that fire could burn. When the work of devastation was com- 
pleted Sherman could truthfully report, " Meridian no longer 
exists." This liberated a large Union force, hitherto on guard 
in Mississippi, and so strengthened the army which could be 
used in advancing against Johnston. 

The President had observed, as he said, that wherever Grant 
was "things moved," and he was anxious to give him a chance 
against Richmond. Congress revived the grade of Lieutenant 
General, and Lincoln now (March 12, 1864) conferred the honor 
upon the man who had taken Vicksburg and beaten Bragg. He 
was the first officer of the army who had regularly received the 
title since Washington.^ Thus the " Unconditional Surrender " 
Grant of Fort Donelson (§ 463) came into command of all the 

1 Official estimate: Union force (effective strength), 60,000; Confederate force, 
probably about 45,000. Union loss, 5815 ; Confederate loss, 6687. 

2 Scott held it only by brevet. 



/ 



1863-1864] THE WAR OF SECESSION 491 

Union forces, numbering nearly 700,000 men in active service. 
Leaving Sherman at the head of the western army. Grant went 
east to prepare for the great final campaign against the Con- 
federate capital. Sherman on his part made ready to move 
against Joseph E. Johnston (§ 489) at Atlanta or wherever he 
should find him. 

491. Summary of the third year of the war (April, 1863- 
April, 1864). The third year of the war opened with Lee's 
defeat of Hooker at Chancellorsville, but also with the Confed- 
erate loss of "Stonewall" Jackson. On July 3 Lee was driven 
back at Gettysburg and the next day Grant entered Vicksburg ; 
the surrender of Port Hudson followed, opening the Mississippi 
and cutting the Confederacy in two. 

In the autumn Rosecrans drove Bragg out of Tennessee, but 
was defeated at Chickamauga and driven to take refuge in Chat- 
tanooga. Grant's army came to the relief of the Union forces 
shut up in Chattanooga, and in the battles of Lookout Mountain 
and Missionary Ridge compelled Bragg to retreat into Georgia. 
Sherman annihilated Meridian, and Grant was soon afterwards 
put in command of all the Union armies and called east to move 
against Richmond. 



Fourth and Final Year of the War (April, 1864- 
April, 1865) 

492. Grant's "hammering campaign"; the twofold advance; 
the battle of the ''"Wilderness." Up to the spring of 1864 the 
Union armies of the East and West had acted, said Grant, " like a 
balky team " — never pulling together. The new General in Chief 
resolved that in future both should start at the word " Go ! " He 
was determined to "hammer" the Confederates day and night 
until he should literally pound them to pieces. His plan was to 
keep Lee so busy that he could not send help to Johnston, while 
Sherman kept Johnston so busy that he could not help Lee. 



492 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



[1864 



On May 4, 1864, Grant crossed the Rapidan just above Fred- 
ericksburg and entered the tangled forest of the "Wilderness," — 
a region filled with a gloom like that of the '' shadow of death." 
Seated on a log in that desolate place, Grant telegraphed to 
Sherman to advance at once against Johnston (§490). 

Meanwliile Grant had sent General Butler with a force nearly 
40,000 strong up the James River to threaten Richmond from 

the south, while 







another Union 
army of 20,000 
men commanded 
by General Hunter 
was sent up the 
Shenandoah Val- 
ley to threaten the 
Confederate cap- 
ital from the west. 
The enemy " bot- 
tled up" Butler on 
a peninsula on the 
James River and 
drove the Union 
forces out of the 
Shenandoah Val- 
ley, so that in the 
end Grant had to 
rely entirely on 
his own army. 

Grant had an effective force of 118,000 men, or nearly twice 
as many as Lee's entire army, counting the reserve held at Rich- 
mond ; but Lee had the immense advantage of knowing every 
foot of the difficult ground, and as fast as he was driven from 
one line of intrenchments he had another ready to fall back upon. 
The battle of the "Wilderness " (May 6-7, 1864) was a desperate 
two days' encounter in which neither side could show any positive 



18&1] THE WAR OF SECESSION 493 

gain. The combatants fought in a labyrinth of woods where they 
scarcely saw each other. The losses on both sides were frightful. 

493. Spottsylvania ; Cold Harbor ; change of base ; Petersburg. 
Two days later, Grant, in making the attempt to get between Lee 
and Richmond, had to fight the battle of Spottsylvania Court 
House (May 9, 10, 1864). Again the Union army suffered ter- 
ribly; Grant, however, was in no wise discouraged, and tele- 
graphed to Washington, " I propose to fight it out on this line 
if it takes all summer." But even the conqueror of Vicksburg 
found that he could not continue to advance on that line farther 
than the North Anna River. He then swung round to the 
Pamunkey and advanced to Cold Harbor. There, within sight 
of the outer circle of the fortifications of Richmond, the "boys 
in blue" charged on Lee's intrenchments and lost over 12,000 
men in their desperate attack. Grant himself said that he always 
regretted ordering that assault. 

He now found the swamps of the Chickahominy (§ 468) such 
a serious obstacle to his further advance that he crossed over to 
the south side of the James River. Lee fell back behind the 
line of works which extended around Richmond. Petersburg, 
on a tributary of the James, formed part of that circle of defense. 
Grant tried in vain to storm the city ; failing to do this, he resolved 
to carry it by siege as he had Vicksburg, but it proved to be a 
ten months' job. 

During the six weeks of fighting (May 5 -June 15, 1864) in 
which the Union army had been engaged since they left the 
Rapidan, Grant had lost nearly 55,000 men, or almost as many 
as Lea's entire force in the field. Lee's losses were only par- 
tially reported, but he must have suffered terribly. He knew 
that the Confederacy was fast exhausting its strength and that it 
could not replace the men that had fallen. Lee had succeeded 
in shaking off every other general that had attacked him, but 
now he felt a grip that he could not shake off. 

494. Early's raid ; the burning of Chambersburg ; Sheridan 
retaliates. In the vain hope of compelling Grant to relax his hold 



494 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1864 

on Petersburg, Lee in June dispatched Early with about 20,000 
men on a raid northward. He moved down the Shenandoah Val- 
ley, that convenient Confederate avenue of attack, and threatened 
the national capital itself. The alarm at Washington was so great 
that the President appealed to Grant to come to the rescue, and 
the convalescents from the hospitals and the clerks in the govern- 
ment departments were mustered into service. Had Early moved 
promptly (July 11, 1864), *' he might have entered the capital"; 
but he delayed action just long enough to give Grant time to 
throw reenforcements into that fort-girdled city. 

The Confederate general then fell back, carrying off many thou- 
sand horses and cattle, together with other plunder. Finding that 
he was not pursued, he sent a detachment of cavalry into Pennsyl- 
vania to levy a contribution on Chambersburg. The citizens were 
called on to furnish $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in "green- 
backs." They could not or would not comply with the demand, 
and the raiders laid the town in ashes, leaving 3000 noncom- 
batants without food or shelter. 

Grant resolved to retaliate by cleaning out the Shenandoah 
Valley so that the Confederates could no longer draw provisions 
from it to feed their armies. He selected Sheridan, who had 
distinguished himself in his raids on the enemy's supplies, to do 
the work of destruction. Grant says that the only order this 
energetic soldier required was the simple command, " Go in ! " 
Sheridan, with an effective force of about 26,000 men, " went 
in." He started from the lower part of the Valley at Harpers 
Ferry (September 19, 1864) and moved slowly up to the top, 
driving the last armed Confederate out of the region. 

Then (October 6, 1864) he turned and moved down the Valley, 
devastating it as he advanced. He slaughtered or drove off 
thousands of cattle and sheep, burned more than seventy grist 
mills, and destroyed over two thousand barns filled with hay and 
grain. When he had finished he had stripped the Valley so bare 
of food supplies that it was said a crow could not fly through it 
unless he carried his provisions with him. 



1864] THE WAR OF SECESSION 495 

495. "Sheridan's ride"; the Petersburg mine. Lee now ordered 
Early to make an attempt to recover the desolated Valley which, 
though destitute of supplies, still remained a most convenient 
thoroughfare for raids on the North. Early moved cautiously 
and under cover of darkness attacked and nearly defeated the 
Union forces at Cedar Creek (October 19, 1864). 

Sheridan had just returned to Winchester from Washington. 
Hearing heavy firing in the direction of Cedar Creek, and sus- 
pecting something wrong, he mounted his horse and rode toward 
that point. The retreating Union men when they met their 
commander turned of their own accord and started for the front. 
Sheridan's arrival on the field was greeted with cheer after cheer. 
Swinging his hat, he dashed along the line of battle shouting, 
" Never mind, boys, we '11 whip them yet." The "boys " responded 
by throwing up their caps and hurrahing with the wildest joy. 
Before night set in they drove Early out of the Valley. The 
Confederates never entered it in force again and never attempted 
to make another raid through it. 

Grant had been burrowing beneath the defenses of Petersburg 
(§ 493) for more than a month, and on the last of July (1864) 
he exploded a gigantic mine under one of the Confederate forts. 
A detachment of Union troops rushed into the " crater " to force 
their way into the city. The commander did not act promptly 
and the attacking party were caught in a death trap. The 
enemy's guns opened upon the struggling mass of men in the 
" crater," and about 4000 brave fellows were killed or taken 
prisoners. In his report Grant called the Petersburg mine a 
" stupendous failure." 

496. Sherman advances on Atlanta. On May 4, 1864, the day 
on which Grant advanced into the " Wilderness " (§ 492), Sher- 
man, in obedience to orders, moved against Joseph E. Johnston 
(§ 490). Sherman had an army nearly 100,000 strong. Johnston 
had only about half as many men, but he was strongly intrenched 
among the hills at Dalton, Georgia, and he knew the country. 
Again, Sherman had to draw his supplies over a single-track line 



496 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i864 

of railway, open to guerrilla raids, while Johnston was exposed to 
no such danger. 

By a skillful flank movement Sherman compelled Johnston to 
abandon Dal ton (May 13, 1864) and fall back to Resaca. From 
this point Sherman, in a series of battles, forced his antagonist 
back to Allatoona, then to Dallas, and then to Kenesaw Mountain. 
Sherman said that from this time on for an entire month his guns 
never stopped firing for a single minute. He pushed Johnston back 
step by step until he drove him across the Chattahoochee River 
(July 9, 1864) and the Union army caught sight of the spires of 
Atlanta, — the most important center in the Confederacy for the 
manufacture of military supplies and for their distribution by rail. 

497. Sherman takes Atlanta. Jefferson Davis thought Johnston 
was too slow. He now relieved him of his command and put the 
impetuous Hood at the head of the Confederate forces in Georgia. 
Hood was a "fighter." He made a furious attack (July 20-24, 
1864) on the Union army, but the " battle of Atlanta " went 
against him and Hood had to retreat and seek shelter within the 
intrenchments of the city. 

Sherman, fighting his way, worked round to the right in order 
to cut the railway on which Hood depended for his supplies. 
The Confederate general, seeing that he could not continue to 
hold the city, blew up his works and decamped in the night (Sep- 
tember 1,1864). The next morning the Union forces entered 
Atlanta in triumph.^ 

Jefferson Davis then ordered Hood to move northward and 
threaten Nashville. The Union commander heard with joy that 
Hood was advancing in that direction and sent Thomas to look 
after him. It is reported that Sherman said, " If Hood will 
go to Tennessee, I will give him rations to go with"; could he 
have foreseen the result of the conflict with Thomas, he would 
have promised his adversary double rations. But Jefferson Davis 

1 Official estimate: Union force, nearly 100,000; Confederate force not reported, 
but estimated at 60,000. Union loss in the advance from Chattanooga to Atlanta, 
about 40,000 ; Confederate loss, about the same. 



1864] THE WAR OF SECESSION 497 

declared that Sherman was lost. Hood, he said, was now in his 
rear, while Johnston was in front ; he predicted that these two 
Confederate millstones would grind the Union army to powder. 

498. Sherman removes the citizens of Atlanta. Sherman had 
decided to make Atlanta '' a pure military garrison or depot with 
no civil population to influence military measures." The reasons 
he gave for coming to that decision were : (i) that if he permitted 
the inhabitants to remain, he would have to feed them, and he 
felt that he had all he could do to feed his army; and (2) he 
would have to maintain a strong force *' to guard and protect the 
interests of a hostile population." 

He therefore ordered (September 12, 1864) the inhabitants to 
leave the place, offering to provide free transportation for all, 
either northward or southward. Hood and the authorities of 
Atlanta protested against the " heartless cruelty " of this order. 
Sherman replied : " War is cruelty and you cannot refine it ; and 
those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and 
maledictions a people can pour out." ''We don't w^ant your 
negroes or your horses or your houses or your lands or anything 
you have ; but we do want, and will have, a just obedience to the 
laws of the United States." " I want peace, and believe it can 
only be reached through union and war. . . . When peace does 
come you may call on me for anything. Then I will share with 
you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and 
families against danger from every quarter." ^ 

499. Admission of two new states; the presidential election 
(1864). During the progress of the war two new states, West 
Virginia (1863) and Nevada (1864), were admitted to the Union, 
making the total number thirty-six. The latter was admitted in 
order to secure the full number of states necessary to ratify the 
thirteenth amendment (§ 476) ; for, said Lincoln, " It is easier to 
admit Nevada than it is to raise another million of soldiers." ^ 
Its state constitution was the first ever adopted which formally 
denied the right of secession (§ 509). 

iSee Sherman's Memoirs, II, 126. 2 gee Dana's CiWl War, 174-175. 



498 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1864 

While Grant was besieging Petersburg and Sherman was holding 
Atlanta the presidential election took place (1864). Originally 
three candidates were in the field. The Radical Republicans, who 
thought Lincoln moved too slowly and dealt too tenderly with 
" the rebellion," had nominated John C. Fremont (§ 472). In Sep- 
tember (1864) Fremont withdrew his name, and the Radicals then 
joined forces with the regular Republicans. They, in connection 
with many War Democrats, united in renominating Lincoln, with 
Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat of Tennessee, for Vice Presi- 
dent. The Union Convention warmly indorsed the measures of 
the administration. They voted the thanks of the American 
people to the army and navy that had vindicated the honor of 
the country's flag, they declared themselves in favor of the speedy 
construction of a railway to the Pacific, and they pledged the 
national faith for the payment of the public debt. 

The Democratic Convention, under the control of the Peace 
Democracy (§ 456), declared that the object of the party was " to 
preserve the federal Union and the rights of the states unimpaired." 
They accused the administration of violating the Constitution 
under plea of military necessity. They further declared that '' after 
four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of 
war," the public welfare demanded " that immediate efforts be 
made for a cessation of hostilities." Like the Republicans, they 
acknowledged the debt they owed to " the brave soldiers and 
sailors of the Repubhc," and pledged themselves to secure to them 
the care and protection that they had so '' nobly earned." 

The convention nominated General McClellan for the presi- 
dency. McClellan virtually repudiated the platform on which 
he was nominated. He said: "The Union must be preserved 
at all hazards. I could not look in the face of my gallant com- 
rades of the army and navy, who have survived so many bloody 
battles, and tell them that their labors and the sacrifice's of so 
many of our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain." 

Twenty-five states took part in the election, and of these 
thirteen cast an army vote as well as a home vote. McClellan 



i8fri] THE WAR OF SECESSION 499 

received 21 electoral votes; Lincoln received 2 12, carrying every 
state which took part in the election except New Jersey, Delaware, 
and Kentucky. The popular Democratic vote stood 1,808,725 to 
2,216,067 cast for the Republican candidate. 

500. AUatoona; Sherman burns Atlanta and sets out for the 
sea. While Sherman was holding Atlanta (§ 498) a Confederate 
force had attacked AUatoona, Sherman's secondary base of sup- 
phes. General Corse fought desperately to hold the place. He 
lost nearly a third of his little force and reported himself " short 
a cheek and an ear," but he held out until help arrived and 
the attacking party withdrew. Sherman issued a general order 
giving Corse high praise for his gallant defense of this important 
position. 

But the Union commander saw that he could hardly hope to 
advance into the heart of the Confederacy and at the same time 
keep his lines of communication open in the rear. His supplies 
of food, ammunition, arms, and clothing, amounting to 150 car 
loads a day, had to come all the way from Nashville by a single- 
track road, which might be cut at any time. 

With Grant's consent, Sherman now decided on the boldest 
move of the war. He resolved to abandon Atlanta, sever all 
communication with the North, and strike out across the country 
for the sea, '' smashing things " as he went. 

He first destroyed the railway and telegraph lines in his rear 
so that the enemy could not use them. He next applied the 
torch to Atlanta, burning all factories, machine shops, and other 
works, so that they could be of no use to the Confederate forces 
in case they should reoccupy the city. 

Then (November 15, 1864), with 60,000 '' as good soldiers as 
ever trod the earth," he set off on his great march.^ As the 
Union army left the smoking ruins of Atlanta a band struck up 
"John Brown's soul goes marching on," and regiment after 
regiment spontaneously broke out into the '^ Hallelujah " chorus 
of that famous song. 

1 See Sherman's Memoirs, II, 1 71-190. 



500 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



501. Sherman's "bummers"; the "freedmen." Sherman car- 
ried a goodly store of provisions with him, but he purposed to 
draw largely from the region through which he passed. His 
orders were, "Forage liberally." Every morning a body of men 
nicknamed " bummers" set out to obtain supplies. They started 
on foot, scouring the country for many miles in every direction ; 
at night they came back mounted on horses or mules or riding in 
some family carriage, and laden down with pigs, chickens, hams, 
bags of sweet potatoes, and jugs of molasses. What with his 




Sherman's March 
Chattanooga to Atlanta ; Atlanta to Savannah ; Savannah to Raleigh 

cavalry and his foraging parties Sherman cut a swath not far from 
sixty miles in width. The Confederate forces were not strong 
enough to oppose him and retired as he advanced. Their 
"bummers" — for they, like Sherman, lived off the country — 
were quite as greedy for good things as the Union men. Between 
the ravages of the two the plantations were stripped bare. 

As Sherman advanced he systematically destroyed all lines of 
railway in order to cripple the Confederate means of transporta- 
tion. The soldiers not only tore up the rails but heated them 
red-hot in huge fires and then twisted them round trees. 



1864] THE WAR OF SECESSION 501 

The negroes welcomed the " boys in blue " with frantic joy. 
They shouted, hugged the regimental colors, and crowded round 
Sherman with prayers and tears that he says '' would have moved 
a stone." To them the stern destroyer was the " angel of the 
Lord " who had come to set them free. 
^ 502 . Milledgeville ; Savannah ; Thomas crushes Hood. Sher- 
^ man reached Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia, late in Novem- 
ber (1864) and burned all buildings which the Confederates 
could use for military purposes. He then mOved forward, by 
way of Millen, to Savannah. Early in December (1864), twenty- 
four days after leaving Atlanta, he reached the sea and put him- 
self in communication with the federal gunboats. He stormed 
Fort McAllister, entered the port which it guarded, and sent 
word to the President, " I beg to present you as a Christmas gift 
the city of Savannah." The message reached the White House 
on Christmas Eve (1864). 

Sherman remained at Savannah more than a month in order 
to rest his army. In his great march of 300 miles through the 
heart of the Confederacy he had lost less than 800 men. 

At the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, Hood (§ 497) was 
repulsed by a part of Thomas' force, which then retired to Nash- 
ville. The Confederate general next moved against the " Rock 
of Chickamauga " himself (§488), but on that rock he was 
dashed to pieces. The battle of Nashville (December 15, 16, 1864) 
ended in the utter rout of Hood's army as an effective force. 

The great mass of his men was reduced to a ''disheartened 
and disorganized rabble," glad to throw down their arms in order 
to end their sufferings. But Hood's famous rear guard never 
flinched and Thomas gladly paid them the tribute of respect that 
a brave man never grudges to brave men, no matter how mis- 
taken their cause may be. The victory at Nashville was far- 
reaching.^ It put an end to all thoughts of the invasion of the 

1 Official estimate : Union force, 70,272 ; available force in and about Nashville, 
December 15, 1864, at least 55,000; Confederate force, nearly 39,000. Union loss, 
3057; Confederate loss, 15,000. 



502 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1864 

North and left only one strong Confederate army in the field, 
and that was gathered about Richmond. 

503. The <'Kearsarge" fights the *' Alabama" ; Farragut enters 
Mobile ; capture of Fort Fisher. While these stirring events were 
taking place on land the Union navy was doing its full part at 
sea and along the coast (§ 508). Of the score of Confederate 
cruisers (§454) which roamed the ocean '' seeking what they 
might devour " none was so much dreaded as the notorious Ala- 
bama. She was built (1862) in a British shipyard, armed with 
British guns, and manned in great part by British sailors under 
the command of Captain Semmes.^ In less than two years Semmes 
captured nearly seventy American merchantmen and destroyed 
property worth $10,000,000. 

Captain Winslow of the United States man-of-war Kearsarge, 
after vainly cruising for months, at length encountered the Ala- 
bama off Cherbourg, France. After a memorable battle (June 
19, 1864) the Union commander sent this scourge of the ocean 
to the bottom. 

Late in the summer (1864), Farragut,^ the hero of New 
Orleans (§467), entered Mobile Bay. He said it was "one of 
the hardest earned victories of his life." The entrance to the bay 
was defended by forts on opposite sides, by a thickly rammed 
line of piles, and by a triple line of torpedoes, which left only a 
narrow opening into the harbor. Inside the bay the Tennessee^ 

1 The Alabama was built by the Lairds of Birkenhead, England, for the Con- 
federate States. Hon. Charles Francis Adams, our minister to England, urged the 
English government not to permit her to sail. After much delay the law ofificers 
of the Crown recommended her seizure, but on that very day (July 29, 1862) she 
escaped and soon afterward began her career of destruction. The following year 
the Lairds built two powerful ironclad rams for the Confederate States. Mr. Adams 
asked the English government to detain them. The head of the Foreign Office 
replied that the legal evidence was insufficient. Mr. Adams rejoined with a dis- 
patch in which he said, " It would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordship 
that this is war." Shortly after the receipt of this letter the English authorities 
issued orders to seize and hold the rams. 

2 Farragut, Scott, and Thomas were all southerners by birth ; but they, unlike 
General Lee, felt that they owed their first duty to the Union instead of to their 
state. 




FLAG SHIP...xi^'f^:^^'? 

Westerh GtjLF Blockading Squadron. 







^^^;L^^ X^ -^^ ^^^— >^-^<- yC,^^^ 




X^ /^^z:::^ ^ ^^x^feT/^e-^ 




FARRAGUT'S LETTER 



THE WAR OF SECESSION 503 

a formidable ironclad ram, stood ready to receive the attacking 
party. 

Farragut fully realized the desperate work before him. The day 
preceding the battle he wrote home, "I am going into Mobile 
in the morning, if God is my leader, as I hope he is." 

The Union commander's favorite maxim was, "To hurt your 
enemy is the best way to keep him from hurting you." He acted 
on that maxim at Mobile. Lashed in the rigging of the Hartford, 
Farragut, with his fleet of four ironclads and fifteen wooden ves- 
sels, fought his way foot by foot into the harbor (August 5, 1864). 
The forts soon afterwards surrendered to the attack of a land 
force, and the last important port on the Gulf coast was occupied 
by the Union forces. In 1862 he was made rear-admiral. 

In recognition of Farragut's distinguished service Congress 
created the office of vice admiral for him (December, 1864), and 
later (1866) that of admiral. He had fairly won them both. 

Near the close of 1864 Porter's fleet, aided by a land force 
under Butler, made an attack on Fort Fisher, which guarded the 
entrance of the harbor of Wilmington, North Carolina. It was 
the only port in the Confederacy which remained open to block- 
ade runners. The attack failed. The next month (January 13- 
15, 1865) a second assault was made by Porter and Terry. The 
garrison of the fort fought bravely, but none the less they had at 
last to haul down the "stars and bars" and see the "stars and 
stripes " hoisted in their place. 

504. Sherman advances northward ; arrival at Columbia. It was 
Grant's intention to transport Sherman's army from Savannah 
(§502) to Virginia by sea; but Sherman believed that if he 
marched through the Carolinas he could render the cause of 
the Union more effective service. He consulted Grant on this 
point and received permission to carry out his plan. The march 
through Georgia was regarded as something like a " military 
picnic," but the forward movement presented many formidable 
obstacles. It would be necessary for the men to build bridges 
over numerous swollen streams, to wade at times breast deep 



504 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1865 

in water, to hew their way through dense forests, to construct 
scores of miles of "corduroy" road over treacherous soil and 
swamp, and finally to hold themselves in readiness to fight John- 
ston's army. That the men did their work thoroughly is evident 
from the fact that Johnston himself compHmented Sherman's 
veterans by saying, "There had been no such army since the 
days of Julius Caesar." 

Sherman began his march from Savannah on February i, 1865, 
and in less than three weeks he entered Columbia, the capital 
of South Carolina. He found the city on fire. When Wade 
Hampton, the Confederate general, retreated, he applied the 
torch to a quantity of cotton and the flames spread to the houses. 
Sherman ordered his men to endeavor to stop the progress of 
the conflagration ; but a high wind made this impossible and 
the heart of the city was burned out. The Union soldiers nat- 
urally felt no scruples about helping themselves to the old wines, 
silverware, and rich carpets which the wealthy secessionists of 
Charleston had sent to Columbia for safe-keeping. Had Sher- 
man deliberately plundered and then burned the city he would 
have done no more than Early's cavalry had done at Chambers- 
burg (§ 494). On the contrary, when the Union commander 
left Columbia he gave the mayor generous supplies of food to 
feed the destitute. 

505. Capture of Charleston ; battles of Averysboro and Ben- 
tonville ; conference at Hampton Roads ; Lincoln's second 
inauguration. Now that Sherman's army had got in the rear 
of Charleston, and by breaking up the railway had cut off sup- 
plies, the Confederates gave up the attempt to hold the city. 
The Union forces when they entered it (February 18, 1865) 
found it on fire, but by hard work they saved it from entire 
destruction. 

By the middle of March (1865) Sherman was far on his way 
to Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. He encountered 
Johnston's army near Kinston and at Averysboro and Benton- 
ville (March 14, 16, 19-21, 1865). After some sharp fighting, 



THE WAR OF SECESSION 505 

especially at Bentonville, the Confederates retreated and Sher- 
man entered Goldsboro (March 23, 1865).^ Here the great 
march virtually ended. Sherman then went to City Point to 
meet the President, General Grant, and Rear Admiral Porter 
to complete arrangements for beginning the last campaign of 
the war. 

Meanwhile Alexander H. Stephens, with two other Confed- 
erate commissioners, met President Lincoln and Secretary Seward 
at Hampton Roads (February 3, 1865) and made overtures for 
peace.^ The commissioners " were not authorized to concede 
the reunion of the states." The President would not treat on 
any other basis, and so the conference ended without accom- 
plishing anything. 

The next month (March 4, 1865) -Lincoln entered upon his 
second term of office. He finished his inaugural address with 
these words : " Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 
this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God 
will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and 
until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by 
another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years 
ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are 
true and righteous altogether.' With malice toward none ; with 
charity for all ; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see 
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up 
the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the 
battle, and for his widow and his orphan, — to do all which may 

1 Official estimate : Union force, about 58,000 ; Confederate force reported by 
Johnston at much less than 20,000. Union loss at Bentonville, 1646 ; Confederate 
loss reported by Johnston, 2606. 

2 In July, 1864, certain Confederates in Canada wrote to Horace Greeley pro- 
posing a Peace Conference at Niagara. Greeley urged the President to respond 
favorably to it, saying, " It may save us from a northern insurrection." The Presi- 
dent deputed Greeley to meet the Confederates in Canada, but explicitly declined 
to consider any terms proposed unless responsibly accredited agents of the Confed- 
erate government would come to Washington and present their case. The whole 
matter terminated in failure. See Greeley's American Conflict, II, 664. 



506 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1865 

achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves 
and with all nations." 

506. Sheridan's raid ; fall of Petersburg and of Richmond ; 
surrender of Lee and Johnston; assassination of Lincoln. In the 

field of war, events now moved rapidly toward the final crisis. 
Sheridan's cavalry destroyed (March 19, 1865) a part of the 
James River Canal and the Lynchburg Railway which furnished 
supplies for Richmond. He then pushed on to Five Forks, 
twelve miles southwest of Petersburg, overwhelmed the Confed- 
erate garrison at that important road center (April i, 1865), and 
took nearly 6000 prisoners. The capture of Five Forks cut off 
Lee's supplies for Petersburg. The Confederate general saw that 
he must abandon the town, and he knew that if he gave up 
Petersburg he must give up Richmond. 

The next day (April 2, 1865) Grant ordered the final assault 
on Petersburg. It was gallantly defended, but it fell. That 
night Lee retreated from both Petersburg and Richmond, and 
Jefferson Davis fled, but was soon afterward captured.^ On the 
following day (April 3, 1865) the Union forces entered the Con- 
federate capital. 

Lee's only hope of escape now lay in moving southward and 
uniting with Johnston. He had nearly 30,000 men left, but they 
were in a starving condition and many threw away their arms 
and took to the woods. Sheridan intercepted the remnant of the 
Confederate leader's force before he could reach Johnston. On 
April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court 
House. Grant treated his fallen foe with characteristic magna- 
nimity. He simply stipulated that Lee's army should lay down their 
arms and pledge themselves to obey the laws of the United States. 

1 Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in Fort Monroe ; he was indicted for treason, 
but was released on bail in 1867. On Christmas Day, 1868, President Johnson 
granted a full, unconditional pardon to all persons who had been engaged " in the 
late insurrection or rebellion." The government, therefore, took no further action 
against Davis ; with the single exception of disability to hold office, imposed by the 
fourteenth amendment to the Constitution (which Congress refused to remove), 
Davis was relieved from all penalties for his attempt to destroy the Union. He 
died at New Orleans in 1889. 



JL A^Ulo-c^ dc/t^^ (^iiTLiX ^^ur^iZ^ 



L>0 A^lyiyjAJL^A^/h^t^U//// ffj /^oc/C^Slv^ 




mu^ Zot^utx^ Ci^Hyi^ /C^nki^ off^ ' fl^t^ 



LEE'S LETTER OF SURRENDER 



1865] THE WAR OF SECESSION 507 

He allowed the men to take their horses home with them " to work 
their little farms." The Union commander then issued an order 
to furnish Lee's half-famished army with 25,000 rations.^ Mean- 
while the "men in blue " and the " men in gray " were mingling 
as friends. The Union soldiers made haste to share their pro- 
visions with their former antagonists, and the officers of both 
armies greeted each other with the heartiness of fellow-countrymen 
who felt that they were no longer foes, but that henceforth they 
would fight under the same flag. 

Less than three wrecks later, Johnston surrendered his army 
(April 26, 1865) to Sherman near Raleigh. But in the midst of 
the nation's joy a terrible crime had been committed. On the very 
day (April 14, 1865) that the Union flag was restored on Fort 
Sumter (§ 449) President Lincoln fell by the hand of- an assassin.^ 
Many of the people of the South mingled their tears with those 
of the North over the bier of one whom " they knew to have 
wished them well." The work of reconstruction which Lincoln 
began (§ 511) late in 1863 now devolved on President Johnson. 

507. Summary of the fourth and last year of the war. In the 
spring of 1864 Grant entered upon his famous "hammering cam- 
paign " against Richmond, while at the same time Sherman (by 
his orders) moved against Atlanta. After the capture of Atlanta, 
Sherman set out on his great march for Savannah. Thence he 
moved northward to Goldsboro, North Carolina, beating back 
Johnston as he advanced. 

1 In speaking of Lee's surrender Grant says : " I felt like anything rather than 
rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had 
suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for 
which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not 
question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to 
us." Grant's Personal Memoirs, II, 489. 

2 The President was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an obscure half-crazed actor, 
and died the following morning (April 15). Booth was one of a number of conspira- 
tors who formed a plot to assassinate the President, the Vice President, Secretary 
Seward, and General Grant. The plot had no political significance and the southern 
leaders had no knowledge of its existence. Booth escaped, but was soon afterwards 
shot in his hiding place ; the remaining conspirators were tried by military commis- 
sion, and four were convicted of murder and hanged. 



508 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1865 

Farragut had entered Mobile Bay, and Grant, after a series of 
terrible battles, had moved round to the south side of the James 
River and begun the siege of Petersburg, sending Sheridan to 
drive the Confederates out of the Shenandoah Valley. 

In the spring of 1865 Grant took Petersburg and Richmond 
and forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Court House. A 
few weeks later, Johnston surrendered to Sherman. The national 
flag had already been restored at Fort Sumter, but the President 
had been assassinated and the work of reconstruction had fallen 
to President Johnson. 

508. The two decisive forces; the blockade; total number of 
battles ; cost of the war in life and treasure. The Union armies 
and the blockading squadrons worked together like upper and 
nether millstones. ^Vhile Grant and Sherman's immense land 
forces crushed all organized resistance, the national sea forces 
blockaded the coast of the Southern States and eventually cut 
off all help from abroad. 

The work which this fleet of more than 600 war-ships accom- 
plished attracted hardly any attention when compared with the 
military operations on land, but in its way it was equally effectual. 
Few coasts are more tempestuous than the southern Atlantic, and 
the men who for four years stood at their posts of duty along that 
storm-swept line braved hardships and perils that would have 
appalled any but the stoutest hearts. 

When President Lincoln declared the thirty or more ports of 
the Confederate States sealed up, foreign powers looked upon it 
as a mere " paper blockade," which any daring vessel might 
break through at will. But gradually upwards of 3000 miles 
of coast were brought under patrol and more than 1500 block- 
ade runners were captured, destroyed, or driven ashore and 
wrecked. 

In time the blockade had a twofold effect: first, it shut out 
foreign supplies and so threw the Confederates entirely upon their 
own limited resources ; next, it made it impossible for them to 
export their cotton, and it converted the slaves, who had been 



THE WAR OF SECESSION 509 

wealth producers, into mere food producers. This prevented 
Jefferson Davis from getting money to keep up the contest, so 
that when the war ended cotton worth ^300,000,000 in gold was 
found stored away in different parts of the South. 

On land, military operations never stopped, and fighting was 
taking place somewhere along the line every day. 

The total number of engagements, great and small, counted up 
over 2000. On the Union side the loss of life reached a total of 
over 360,000, of whom the greater part are buried in the national 
cemeteries at Gettysburg and elsewhere. Probably the South lost 
as many as the North; if so, we have a total of over 720,000. 
At the North more than two thirds of the men ^ who entered the 
ranks were American born ; at the South nearly all were so. The 
average age, at enlistment, of those who entered the Union army 
is said to have not exceeded twenty- two. The expense of the 
war to the national government, above the ordinary expenses, 
was about ^3,250,000,000, the average cost being over ^2,000,- 
000 a day (or nearly $1400 a minute) for the entire four years. 
Perhaps as much as $600,000,000 of the total war expenses 
must be charged to the heavy depreciation in the paper money 
issued by the government.^ On the other hand, allowance must 
be made for the fact that the government settled most of its bills, 

1 The total number of men who entered the Union army and navy is given by 
Phisterer, in his Statistical Record of the Civil War, at somewhat over 2,850,000 
(counting those who reenlisted and including 186,097 colored troops) ; but Greeley 
(American Conflict, II, 759) estimates the actual number of men who effectively 
participated in putting down the rebellion at about 1,500,000. The border states of 
Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky furnished no less than 252,122 men to 
the Union army; Tennessee (mainly eastern Tennessee), 31,092; and West Virginia, 
32,068. On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000 three-months' men ; 
between May and July, 1861, he called for 500,000 men for from six months to three 
years; in July, 1862, he called for 300,000 three-years' men; and in August, 1862, 
for 300,000 militia for nine months' service, but obtained only 87,588 ; in June, 1863, 
a call for militia for six months' service brought 16,361 ; in October, 1863, and Feb- 
ruary, 1864, he called for 500,000 men in the aggregate for three years. In these 
calls the men raised by draft in 1S63 are included. In March, 1864, he called for 
200,000 three-years' men ; in July, 1864, for 500,000; and finally, in December, 1864, 
for 300,000. 

2 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 293. 



510 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1865 

including those due the army and navy, in " greenbacks," ^ which 
were worth much less than gold (§455). 

The United States, says Colonel Dodge, ^ paid its soldiers more 
liberally than any other nation ever did before ; besides this they 
received ;^ 300,000, 000 in bounties, and the government has since 
paid them over $3,000,000,000 in pensions (§ 554); including 
the pensions still to be disbursed, the sum may easily reach a total 
of more than $5,000,000,000. If we add the amounts spent by 
states and towns for the war, the grand total would probably 
exceed $8,000,000,000, — or more than the entire assessed valu- 
ation of the loyal states at the outbreak of the contest (§ 453). 

The expenditure on the secession side cannot be reckoned ; 
but it may be said with entire truth that the people of the South 
stripped themselves bare and spent their last dollar in their 
desperate effort to tear the Union asunder. Besides these 
losses, the Union armies destroyed property in that section to 
an incalculable amount. 

509. Results of the war. But however enormous the expendi- 
ture of life and treasure, the economic, political, and moral results 
of the war for the Union have fully justified the cost. It is true 
that it entailed serious evils on the country, for it begot extrava- 
gance, criminal waste, wild speculation, gigantic frauds,^ and 
political corruption ; it disorganized regular labor to a consider- 
able extent and temporarily increased pauperism ; but in the end 
the good it achieved far outbalanced these evils. 

I. The war freed not only the South, but the whole country, 
from the burden and curse of slavery. It made it possible to 
develop the immense natural resources of that section, which had 
in great measure lain dormant since colonization began. New 

1 Up to May i, 1864, the pay of a private was ^13 a month, after that date it was 
raised to §16 a month. 

2 See Dodge's Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War (revised edition), 326, 

3 Colonel Henry S. Olcott, who was employed by Secretary Stanton to unearth 
frauds perpetrated by contractors and others on the government, estimated that " over 
^700,000,000 was paid to public robbers or worse than wasted through improvident 
methods." See The Philadelphia Weekly Times, " Annals of the War," 723. 



1865] THE WAR OF SECESSION 51 I 

energy, new life, new enterprises have sprung up, which have 
stimulated industry, disseminated education, and re-created the 
South. These influences are making it one of the most prosperous 
and wealthy parts of the Republic. The negro shares in this new 
life. A little more than a generation ago he was so poor that he 
did not own himself; to-day he is a free laborer, the maker of 
his own future and the possessor of property assessed at many 
millions. 

2. The war not only saved the Union but perfected it. It 
prohibited the secession principle forever (§ 355 ) and stamped that 
prohibition ineffaceably upon the Constitution " by blood and 
iron." Ex-Governor Wise of Virginia said after the long struggle 
was over and the negro was set free, ''It was God's war." In that 
magnanimous spirit the South, generally, has, as General Long- 
street shows (§ 513), accepted the issue, and nine of the states 
which seceded have adopted new constitutions or amended old 
ones, repudiating disunion as treason.^ Thus the terrible contest 
completed the work of the founders of the Republic, and, in the 
words of the Supreme Court {Texas vs. White, 1868), it made the 
nation " an indestructible union " of " indestructible states." In 
doing this the war showed the world that there is nothing stronger 
or more stable than what President Lincoln called " government 
of the people, by the people," and ''for the people." 

3. Finally, the contest lifted the whole nation to a higher moral 
level. In doing away with slavery and with the evils which slavery 
inflicted on black and white ahke, it made the Declaration of 
Independence true not of one favored race but of all who to-day 
claim the name and the rights of American citizens. By accom- 
plishing this great work the war has made North and South one 
in purpose, in patriotism, in brotherhood. It has estabhshed a 
Union resting on mutual respect, and on heart and conscience, 
which will stand as long as heart and conscience are obeyed. 

1 See Poore's Federal and State Constitutions. 



VII 

RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION^ 

(1865 TO THE PRESENT TIME) 

For authorities for this chapter, see footnotes a?td the classified 
list of books in the Appendix, page xxiv 

510. President Johnson (1865-1869) ; his previous record ; atti- 
tude toward the South. A few hours after the death of Lincoln 
(April 15, 1865) Vice President Johnson took the oath of office 
which made him head of the Republic. Like Lincoln, Johnson 
sprang from the class then known at the South as "poor whites." 
He began the practical work of life at the tailor's board in a log 
cabin in eastern Tennessee.' He had never attended school, but 
he taught himself to read, and his wife taught him to write. His 
ambition and force of character led him to enter the field of local 
poHtics. He became one of the leaders of the workingmen in 
his section in their contest with the slaveholding aristocracy. He 
rose step by step until he became governor of his state ; soon 
afterward the Democrats elected him (1857) to the United States 
Senate. He was the only southern man in the Senate who stood 
resolutely by the Union and openly denounced secession as 
"unholy rebellion." 

1 See Wilson's Division and Reunion, 254-299 ; Bryant and Gay's United States 
(revised edition), V ; Wilson's United States, V; Rhodes' United States, V ; Burgess' 
Reconstruction and tiie Constitution ; Andrews' The United States in our Time 
(1870-1903) ; Scribner's American History Series, V, VI; Blaine's Twenty Years 
of Congress; Johnston's American Politics (revised edition) ; Brown's United States 
since the Civil War ; Macdonald's Select Statutes ; Dewey's Financial History 
of the United States; Woodburn's Political Parties; Stan wood's The Presidency; 
Mason's Veto Power; Merriam's Political Theories; McPherson's Political History 
of Reconstruction ; McKee's Conventions and Platforms. 

512 



1865] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 513 

In the spring of 1862 President Lincoln appointed Senator 
Johnson miUtary governor of Tennessee. He greatly strength- 
ened the Union cause in that state, and when the RepubHcans 
renominated Lincoln to the presidency (1864) they recognized 
the services of the War Democrats by putting Johnson on the 
ticket as Vice President. When the assassination of the President 
raised Johnson to the highest office in the nation, he entered upon 
his duties with the declaration : " The American people must be 
taught to know and understand that treason is a crime." "It 
must not be regarded as a mere difference of political opinion." 
Again he said, "Treason must be made infamous and traitors 
must be impoverished." 

511. The " freedmen " ; plans for reconstruction. Two political 
questions of prime importance pressed for settlement : (i) What 
should be done to aid and protect the "freedmen"? (2) What 
action should be taken respecting the restoration or reconstruction 
of the seceded states? 

At the close of the war the government was confronted with 
the stupendous problem of providing for several millions of 
negroes. Tens of thousands of them had followed the Union 
armies and had been gathered into camps at different points. 
These poor people were legally free, but that was all. They were 
"landless, homeless, helpless," and there was danger that many 
of them would sink into a state of permanent pauperism. One 
of President Lincoln's last acts was to sign a bill (March 3, 1865) 
creating the Freedmen's Bureau.-^ The Bureau was to con- 
tinue for one year ; its object was to place the freedmen, as far 
as practicable, on abandoned or confiscated lands at the South 
and render them self-supporting. General O. O. Howard was 
appointed commissioner and was invested, he says, with " almost 
unlimited authority." 

The second problem, that of reconstruction, was even more 
formidable than the negro question, which was necessarily closely 
bound up with it. 

ISee Macdonald's Select Statutes, Nos. 44, 51. 



514 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [18G5 

The Constitution was silent in regard to secession and civil war, 
and it threw no light on the delicate, difficult, and dangerous work 
of restoring or reconstructing the Southern States. Three ques- 
tions arose : (i) What was the condition of the seceded states, — 
were they still members of the Union, as a dislocated arm is still a 
member of the body, — or had secession put them wholly out of the 
Union and were they now simply conquered territory? (2) Did 
the power to restore or reconstruct rest with the President or with 
Congress? (3) What action should be taken respecting the 
negro ? Should he be made a citizen and a voter or simply left 
free? If the ballot was put in his hands, he might swamp the 
white vote in the South by force of numbers ; if simply left free, 
his presence would increase the basis of representation and so 
increase the power of the South in Congress. On the other 
hand, if he could not protect himself, he might be virtually 
reenslaved. 

President Lincoln, in accordance with his inaugural address 
(§ 448), took the position that the Union and the states were 
alike indestructible (§§509, 512), and that secession had simply 
thrown certain states temporarily out of gear with the rest. He 
believed that it was his work to set them right again. His plan 
was essentially that of restoration. In December, 1863, he issued 
a proclamation of amnesty. 

By it he granted "a full pardon" to '' all persons," except the 
leaders of secession, who had been engaged in the "existing 
rebellion," provided they should take an oath to support the 
Constitution and all acts of Congress to date. He furthermore 
declared that whenever one tenth or more of the loyal voters of 
i860 in the seceded states should reestablish a state government 
in accordance with the Constitution and the oath of allegiance, 
he would recognize it as " the true government of the state." 

President Lincoln added, however, that the admission of such 
reconstructed states to representation did not rest with him but 
with Congress. The President did not favor negro suffrage and 
he made no provision for it in his plan of reconstruction. But 



1865] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 515 

later (1864), he suggested to the governor of Louisiana that pos- 
sibly a few of the colored people in that state might be permitted 
to vote. 

The Radical Republicans in Congress denounced the Presi- 
dent's policy as dangerous to the welfare of the nation, and the 
next spring (1864) Henry Winter Davis introduced a reconstruc- 
tion bill which put the whole control of the late Confederate 
States in the hands of Congress ; but, like the President's method, 
it was silent in regard to negro suffrage. President Lincoln 
killed the bill by a " pocket veto " (§ 365), mainly on the ground 
that it was too rigid in its character. The angry Radicals, under 
the leadership of Senators Davis and Wade, issued an address 
'' to the supporters of the government," in which they charged 
Lincoln with deliberately striking " a blow at the friends of the 
administration, at the rights of humanity, and at the principles 
of repubhcan government." ^ 

The President did not lose his temper, but in the last words 
which he spoke in public (April 11, 1865) he declared his adher- 
ence to his own plan of restoration or reconstruction. He 
earnestly advocated a policy of conciliation toward the seceded 
states, saying, '' We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the 
egg than by smashing it." 

512. How Congress regarded President Johnson's plan of recon- 
struction. Johnson declared that he held the view of reconstruc- 
tion which Lincoln had defended (§511). His idea of liberty for 
the negro was that it gave him the right to work for himself but 
did not include the right to vote. He believed that this is a 
" white man's government " and must remain such. He insisted 
that the question of negro suffrage rested solely with the people 
of the Southern States. 

Congress was divided ; a few members held with Senator 
Sumner that the Southern States had committed political suicide 
and that the government should proceed to deal with them as 
conquered territory. In the House, Thaddeus Stevens went 

1 See Johnston's American Orations, IV, 129. 



5l6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

further still and proposed to confiscate the "estates of rebels" 
worth more than ^10,000, to give forty acres of land to each 
"freedman," and to use the remainder in paying off the national 
war debt. He wished to grant the negro full political rights, and 
at the same time deprive the southern whites of their former 
political rights.^ But the great majority in Congress held that 
the states still existed as states, and that the Constitution, though 
suspended, was still in force in that section. They insisted, how- 
ever, that Congress, and Congress only, should decide on the read- 
mission of the seceded states to their poUtical rights. This view 
of the States and the Union was confirmed (1868) by a decision 
of the Supreme Court of the United States {Texas vs. White), 

Johnson had none of Lincoln's tact; he stood up stubbornly 
in defense of his theory. Congress was equally determined; the 
result was a prolonged battle between the executive and the legis- 
lative powers. In that battle Secretary Seward took his stand 
firmly by the President. Eventually Seward's influence induced 
President Johnson to adopt a more conciliatory attitude toward 
the South. 

513. The grand review; disbanding the army; the war debt; 
condition of the South. The struggle between the Executive and 
Congress over reconstruction did not begin at once. The close 
of the war called for a grand military review at Washington. 
The parade of even a part of the Union armies occupied two 
entire days (May 23, 24, 1865). On the first day the "Army of 
the Potomac," with General Meade at the head, marched from 
the national capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White 
House. 

The following day General Sherman at the head of the " Army 
of the West " passed over the same ground. These men were no 
" holiday troops," but a great body of war-worn veterans " who 
had not slept under a roof for years." They bore the shot-torn 
banners which they had carried on a hundred hard-fought fields. 
On those fields they had left dead comrades far more numerous 
I See Wpodburn's Political Parties, 93, 



1865] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 517 

than the throngs who now joined with them in celebrating the 
final victory of peace. 

The muster out of the Union forces, of nearly a million in 
number, had already begun. It continued at the rate of about 
250,000 a month, until all but a comparatively small force of reg- 
ular troops had been disbanded. At the same time the govern- 
ment began to pay off the war debt (§ 508), and, before all the 
soldiers had been discharged, the net debt, which was then 
^2,758,000,000, had been reduced ^30,000,000. The European 
press predicted that men who had so long been accustomed to the 
use of arms would not return peacefully to their homes ; but they 
went back as quietly as they came. The Confederates did the 
same ; they, like the Union forces, had that American sense of 
self-respect which forbade disorder. 

But the "men in blue" and the "men in gray" returned to 
widely different fields. The devastating hand of war had hardly 
touched the North in a material sense. No invading armies had 
ravaged the loyal states. In that section, throughout the terrible 
contest, trade, commerce, agriculture, and manufacturing flour- 
ished and thousands prospered and grew rich. 

At the South everything was different. The followers of Lee and 
Johnston, " ragged, half-starved, heavy-hearted," went back to find 
practically everything gone. Their money was worthless, their 
states bankrupt, their railways and manufactories destroyed, their 
houses in ruins, their barns empty, their plantations stripped, 
their slaves set free. 

But though the people of the South had little left but the land 
and their hands with which to work it, yet they did not despair. 
Alexander H. Stephens (§ 445) spoke for multitudes when he said : 
" We should accept the issues of the war and abide by them in 
good faith." " The whole United States is now our country, to be 
cherished and defended as such by all our hearts and all our 
arms." The speaker claimed "full protection" for the negroes, 
so that they should " stand equal before the law in the provision 
and enjoyment of all rights of person, liberty, and property." 



5i8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1865 

Lee exhibited the same loyal purpose. He applied to the 
government for pardon in order to encourage others to do like- 
wise. When Johnston bade farewell to his men he urged them 
to devote all their energies " to discharge the duties of good and 
peaceful citizens." Finally, General Longstreet wrote (1902) 
to General Sickles, his former antagonist, respecting the Confed- 
erate defeat on the hard-fought field of Gettysburg (§ 483), say- 
ing : " It was the sorest and saddest reflection of my life for 
many years ; but to-day I can say with sincerest emotion that it 
was and is the best that could have come to us all. North and 
South, and I hope that the nation, reunited, may always enjoy 
the honor and glory brought to it by that grand work." ^ Out of 
this spirit and the hfe and labor it has inspired a " new South " 
has arisen, progressive, prosperous, patriotic. 

514. Proclamations respecting the South; ratification of the 
thirteenth amendment. Before Congress met, the President issued 
a proclamation (1865) opening the southern ports east of the 
Mississippi and removing all restrictions on trade and inter- 
course. He next offered free and full pardon to all save the 
leaders in the "late rebelhon," ^ on the same general conditions 
as those offered by Lincoln (§ 511), and he soon afterward de- 
clared the insurrection over in Tennessee. The following spring 
(1866) he made the same declaration respecting all the Southern 
States except Texas. A few months later, he proclaimed that 
peace and civil authority existed " throughout the whole of the 
United States of America." 

When Congress met (1865) it omitted the names of the late 
Confederate States from its roll call and appointed a committee 
to inquire into their condition. The announcement was made 
by the Secretary of State that the thirteenth amendment to the 
Constitution (§ 476) had been duly ratified (Appendix, page xvii). 
It was the first such amendment, out of the hundreds that had 
been proposed, which had been adopted in more than sixty years. 

1 See The Army and Navy Journal, October 4, 1902, 106. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 46. 



1865-186G] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 519 

It clinched and extended the Emancipation Proclamation so that 
it covered all the states (§ 476) and made the reestablishment of 
slavery impossible. 

515. Veto of the second Freedmen's Bureau Bill and of the Civil 
Rights Bill ; the fourteenth amendment. The original Freedmen's 
Bureau Act was about to expire by limitation (§ 511). Congress 
therefore (February 6, 1866) passed a bill renewing that act. It 
extended the powers of the commissioner and provided military 
protection for the "freedmen," President Johnson vetoed it. 
His objections were : (i) that the bill was a war measure which 
was uncalled for in time of peace ; (2) that it took land from 
former owners without due process of law and gave it to the 
destitute "freedmen" and "refugees";^ (3) finally, he took the 
ground that the bill was unconstitutional because it had been 
passed by a Congress from which '' all the people of eleven states " 
were excluded. 

The veto killed the proposed act, but later (July 16, 1866) 
Congress passed a similar bill over a second veto.^ 

Meanwhile the President bitterly denounced Congress in a 
public speech, and declared that two prominent members, whom 
he called by name, were laboring to destroy the government. 
Congress retaliated by passing the Civil Rights Bill.^ This bill 
gave the negro the full benefit of all laws for the security of 
person and property which are enjoyed by white citizens, and it 
therefore made the recently liberated slave the equal of his former 
master in the courts. 

The President vetoed the bill mainly on the ground that since 
many of the Southern States were still unrepresented in Congress, 
that body had no constitutional right to declare several millions 
of ignorant negroes citizens of the Republic. This stirred the 
temper of Congress, and both Houses united in promptly passing 

1 The white men in the South who stood by the Union and who fled for protection 
to the Union armies were called " refugees " ; many of them had lost everything. 

2 See Mason's Veto Power, on Johnson's vetoes, 46, 151. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 50. 



520 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1866 

the bill over the veto. From this time the President and the 
majority in Congress were openly at war. Johnson broke more 
completely with the Republicans who had elected him than even 
Tyler did (§ 378) with the Whigs a quarter of a century earlier. 

In June (1866) Congress enacted, by joint resolution, the four- 
teenth amendment to the Constitution (Appendix, page xviii). 
This amendment did four things: (i) it confirmed the Civil 
Rights Act; (2) it reduced the basis of representation of any 
state which excluded the negro from the polls ; (3) it declared 
that no prominent person who had been engaged in the rebellion 
should be eligible to election to Congress, should be a presidential 
elector, or should hold any civil or military office under the United 
States, or under any state, unless Congress removed such disability; 
(4) it declared that the validity of the Union war debt must not 
be questioned, and that neither the United States nor any state 
should pay any portion of the Confederate debt or any claim for 
the loss or emancipation of the slaves. The President protested 
against submitting this amendment to the country for ratification 
until all the Southern States had been readmitted to Congress. 

516. Contest between the President and Congress ; readmission 
of Tennessee ; negro suffrage in the District of Columbia; *' swing- 
ing round the circle." In the long contest which ensued between 
the President and Congress each resolved to defeat and humili- 
ate the other. Johnson henceforth regularly vetoed every bill 
— eleven in all — which favored the Republican reconstruction 
policy ; Congress, on the other hand, just as regularly '' vetoed 
his veto." 

Tennessee had adopted a state constitution which abolished 
slavery and all ordinances and laws of secession, repudiated the 
Confederate debt, and ratified the thirteenth and fourteenth 
amendments to the Federal Constitution. Tennessee was there- 
fore readmitted (July 24, 1866).^ It was the first seceded state 
which was fully restored to all its former rights and privileges as a 
member of the Union. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 52. 



1866-1867] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 52 1 

The next winter (i 866-1 867) the remaining seceded states 
rejected the fourteenth amendment, and South Carolina enacted 
laws which seemed intended to reduce the freedmen to a state of 
subjection not far removed from slavery itself. Toward the close 
of 1866 Congress passed an act over the President's veto which 
granted suffrage to the negroes of the District of Columbia.^ 
They were the first freed slaves who obtained the ballot directly 
from the hands of the nation."^ 

During the occurrence of these events the President had been 
making a northern tour, or " swinging round the circle." He 
spoke in a number of the principal cities and made bitter attacks 
on Congress. He declared that it was not a true Congress since 
it did not represent all the states, that it was *' trying to break 
up the government," and that the Freedmen's Bureau (§ 515) 
was simply a swindle and a disguised form of slavery. 

517. New proclamation of amnesty ; action of Congress ; admis- 
sion of Nebraska ; the Tenure of Office Act ; the Military Recon- 
struction Act ; readmission of states. In the autumn of 1867 the 
President issued a proclamation of general amnesty (§ 514) by 
which pardon was extended to a large class hitherto excepted. 

When the new Congress met (1867) it adopted a series of retali- 
atory measures: (i) it made provision for an almost continuous 
session ; (2) it took from the President the power of issuing gen- 
eral proclamations of pardon ; (3) it virtually deprived him of the 
command of the military forces of the United States by requiring 
that all orders respecting them should pass through General 
Grant ; (4) it set aside his power to suspend the writ of habeas 
corpus; (5) it admitted the state of Nebraska (1867) — the 
thirty-seventh — over the President's veto, and granted negro 
suffrage there; (6) it passed the Tenure of Office Act^ over 
the executive veto. Secretary Stanton denounced this act at the 

iSee Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 54. 

2 The form of government of the District of Columbia has since been changed, 
and none of the inhabitants have the right of suffrage. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, Nos. 57, 80. This act was modified in 1869 
and repealed in 1887. 



522 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1867 

time, but he later (§518) took advantage of it. The object of 
this measure was to prevent the President from carrying out his 
threat of removing public officers who sided with Congress and 
opposed his reconstruction policy. The act forbade his dismiss- 
ing such officers, even when they were members of his Cabinet, 
without the consent of the Senate. 

Congress next proceeded to deal with the seceded states by 
passing the Military Reconstruction Bill (March 2, 1867). This 
bill provided that (i) the ten "rebel states" should be divided 
into five military districts, each to be placed under the command 
of a general of the army appointed by the President ; (2) under 
the supervision of these military authorities each state was to hold 
a convention to frame a state constitution; (3) negroes were to 
have the right to vote for delegates to this convention and to 
act as delegates in it, but all prominent ex-Confederates were 
excluded ; (4) if the constitution 'so framed was accepted by the 
duly qualified voters of the state and approved by Congress, the 
state might then be readmitted to representation, provided its 
Legislature had ratified the fourteenth amendment, which gave 
the "freedmen" full civil rights, repudiated the Confederate 
debt, acknowledged the validity of the Union war debt, and 
renounced all claim for emancipation of slaves (§515). This 
bill set aside the provisional governments which President Johnson 
had created and put the whole work of reconstruction in the hands 
of Congress.^ 

The President vetoed the bill on the ground that its object was 
to coerce the people of the Southern States by military force into 
adopting measures to which they were known to be opposed, and 
that such a measure was " in palpable conflict with the plainest 
provisions of the Constitution." Congress at once passed the bill 
over the veto. The United States Supreme Court {Texas vs. 
White, 1868) virtually confirmed the constitutionality of this act, 
though it also declared in this case, and later {Slaughter- Ho use 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, Nos. 56, 62, 64, 67 ; Johnston's American 
Orations, IV, 129, 141, 149, 168, 181. 



1867 



RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 523 



Cases, 1872), that the power of the Southern States as states 
remained in all respects unimpaired. 

Under this stringent Reconstruction Act the six states of Ala- 
bama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South 
Carolina were readmitted in 1868. Georgia ratified the fourteenth 
amendment in 1868, but was not fully and finally readmitted until 
1870. Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia refused to accede to the 
conditions laid down by Congress and held out until 1870, when 
they accepted them and were readmitted.-^ 

518. Johnson removes Stanton; impeachment of the President. 
The President, in disregard of the Tenure of Office Act (§ 517), 
which he considered unconstitutional, resolved to remove Secretary 
Stanton, with whom he had long been at swords' points. He 
accordingly (August 5, 1867) sent the Secretary this brief note. 
" Sir : Public considerations of a high character constrain me to 
say that your resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted." 
Mr. Stanton, in his almost equally brief reply, said : " Sir : . . . 
I have the honor to say that public considerations of a high char- 
acter, which alone have induced me to continue at the head of 
this department, constrain me not to resign the office of Secretary 
of War before the next meeting of Congress." Senator Sumner 
telegraphed to Stanton this one emphatic word, " Stick ! " and 
'^ stick " he did. 

The President thereupon suspended the Secretary from office, 
but Congress promptly reinstated him. He then ordered the 
Secretary to resign. Instead of doing so, Mr. Stanton sent the 
order to the House of Representatives. Thereupon that body 
resolved by a vote of 128 to 47 to impeach the President for 
" high crimes and misdemeanors.'! The offenses with which he 
was charged were : (i) the removal of Secretary Stanton in direct 
violation of the Tenure of Office Act (§517); (2) commanding 
General Emory not to obey the law (§517) requiring all mili- 
tary orders to be issued through General Grant ; (3) attempting 

1 Congress required that they should ratify the fifteenth amendment, passed sub- 
sequently to the readmission of the first six reconstructed states. 



524 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1868 

to excite the resentment of the people against Congress by 
declaring that it was not a true Congress (§ 516) and that the 
President was not bound by its laws.-^ 

The impeachment trial began the last of March (1868) before 
fifty-four senators, representing twenty-seven states ; Chief Justice 
Chase presided. It ended May 26. Thirty-five senators voted 
" guilty " and nineteen " not guilty." A two-thirds vote was 
required to secure conviction ; the President, therefore, escaped 
removal by the narrow margin of a single vote. 

519. The presidential election (1868). The campaign was fought 
on two questions : (i) Should the presidential or the congressional 
plan of reconstruction be adopted? (2) Should the national debt, 
in cases not specified on the face of the bonds,^ be paid in coin 
or in " greenbacks "? 

The Republicans adopted a platform which heartily indorsed 
the reconstruction policy of Congress ; at the same time they com- 
mended the "spirit of magnanimity and forbearance" shown by 
the recent secessionists, and asked for the removal of the dis- 
qualifications and restrictions imposed upon the "late rebels" as 
far as might be "consistent with the safety of the loyal people." 

They resolved that the national honor required the payment of 
the national debt " not only according to the letter but the spirit 
of the laws under which it was contracted." 

They nominated General Grant for President, with Schuyler 
Colfax of Indiana for Vice President. 

The Democrats demanded the " immediate restoration of all 
the states"; they charged Congress with subjecting ten states, in 
time of peace, to "military despotism and negro supremacy." 
They condemned the Tenure of Office Act (§ 517) and the Re- 
construction Acts (§517) as "unconstitutional, revolutionary, and 
void." They demanded complete "amnesty for all past pohtical 



1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 66. 

- The Republicans held that the bonds should be paid in coin unless paper had 
been agreed upon ; the Democrats, that they should be paid in paper unless coin had 
been agreed upon. 




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VOTE ON THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL 



1S68] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 525 

offenses," " the regulation of the elective franchise in the states 
by their citizens," and the taxation of " government bonds." 

They resolved that, except in cases where coin was stipulated 
in the bond, the obligations of the government '' ought in right 
and in justice to be paid in the lawful money of the United States," 
in other words, in '' greenbacks " (§ 455).^ 

They nominated Governor Horatio Seymour of New York for 
President, with General F. P. Blair of Missouri for Vice Presi- 
dent. Grant and Colfax were elected by 214 electoral votes 
against 80 cast for Seymour. The popular vote stood 3,012,833 
for Grant to 2,703,249 for Seymour. 

The states of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas (§ 517) were 
excluded from taking part in the election. 

520. Proclamation of general amnesty ; the Atlantic telegraph; 
purchase of Alaska ; China ; Mexico ; the fifteenth amendment. 
Notwithstanding the prohibition of Congress respecting proclama- 
tions of pardon (§ 517), the President issued on Christmas Day 
(1868) a final proclamation of amnesty by which he granted a 
full and unconditional pardon " to every person who directly or 
indirectly participated in the late insurrection or rebellion." ^ 

In a wholly different direction Cyrus W. Field of New York 
had accomplished a remarkable work destined to have a lasting 
influence on both America and Europe. About ten years after 
Morse opened the first line of telegraph in the world (§ 386) Mr. 
Field organized a company to estabhsh a Hne between England 
and the United States. In 1858 a cable was laid and for a few 
weeks messages were sent over it ; then it ceased to act. A large 
amount of money had been sunk in the enterprise, but the origi- 
nator of it at once began the work anew and millions more were 
spent. / Finally, after thirteen years of labor and after crossing 
the ogean more than forty times, Mr. Field succeeded (July 27, 
1866) in laying a permanent Atlantic telegraph cable, which, as 
John/Bright said, " moored the New World alongside the Old." 

1 See McKee's National Conventions, 132-139. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 75. 



526 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I866-I868 

From a political, diplomatic, and commercial point of view 
the success of the cable was of great significance. It brought 
the most highly civilized nations of the globe into electric touch 
with each other. 

Such events change the whole current of histor}\ When at the 
close of the War of 18 12 the United States commissioners signed 
the Treaty of Ghent, it took a fast-sailing sloop seven weeks to 
bring the inteIHgence to our shores ; when, in the next generation, 
the Indian mutiny broke out we did not hear of it for a fortnight, 
although the news was sent forthwith by a Cunard steamer ; but 
when the Franco-Prussian War began the Atlantic cable flashed 
the news to us a few minutes after the first gun was fired. 

To-day London and New York are such near neighbors that 
a rise or fall in the English stock market or the passage of an 
important bill in Parliament is published in our papers as soon, 
or, it may be, even sooner than it is in London itself. 

In the autumn of the following year (1867) the United States 
purchased Russian America for $7,200,000 in gold.^ The terri- 
tory received the Indian name of Alaska, or " Great Country." 
During the Civil War, when Confederate cruisers were destroying 
LTnion vessels in the North Pacific, the government felt the need 
of a foothold on the coast in that vicinity. The annexation of 
Alaska gave more than half a million square miles of territory to 
the United States and secured to us a country rich in fish and 
furs, timber and mineral wealth. Including the returns from the 
gold mines, the total products to the present time have been 
over $150,000,000. The purchase was ridiculed as "Seward's 
folly," — "a waste of money on rocks and ice, fit only for a 
polar-bear garden"; but, as we have seen, it has since repaid 
its cost more than twenty fold. 

The next year (1868) the Burlingame Treaty with China 
(§430) was ratified and the Monroe Doctrine was applied to 
the French occupation of Mexico. During the Civil War, Louis 
Napoleon had sent a French army to Mexico to overthrow the 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 63. 




i C A N 'A D (V 



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Possessions of the United States on the North American Continent 

FROM the Time of the Revolution to the Present Day 

(See, too. the map of the world, facing page 590) 

5-7 



528 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

Republic and place the Austrian prince, Maximilian, on the 
throne. President Johnson notified Napoleon that the Monroe 
Doctrine (§ 331) must be respected and sent General Sheridan 
with a strong force to the Mexican frontier. This bayonet- 
pointed hint was sufficient; Napoleon withdrew his forces and 
left Maximilian to his fate. 

In 1869 Congress passed the fifteenth amendment to the Con- 
stitution, whereby the negro would receive the right to vote 
(Appendix, page xviii). It was ratified the same year. 

521. Summary. Politically, the entire administration of Presi- 
dent Johnson was occupied with the readmission of the Southern 
States and with legislation for the " freedmen." The President 
urged the immediate restoration of the late Confederate States, 
but Congress insisted on reorganization according to its own 
will. The conflict between the President and Congress led to 
the passage of the Freedmen's Bureau, Civil Rights, Tenure of 
Office, and Mihtary Reconstruction Acts over the executive veto. 

The refusal of the President to obey the Tenure of Office Act 
resulted in an impeachment trial in which he was acquitted. 

Six Southern States were reconstructed and readmitted during 
Johnson's administration, and the entrance of Nebraska raised 
the whole number in the Union to thirty-seven. 

We note, too, the successful laying of the Atlantic cable, the 
Burlingame Treaty with China, the purchase of Alaska, the with- 
drawal of the French from Mexico, the ratification of the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth amendments, and the passage by Congress 
of the fifteenth. 



Ulysses S.Grant (Republican), Two Terms (1869-1877) 

522. Grant's inaugural address; completion of the Pacific rail- 
way. In his inaugural address General Grant (§ 519) laid especial 
emphasis on the necessity of extending suffrage to the " freedmen " 
and on the payment of the war debt in coin. ''To protect the 



1869] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 529 

national honor," said he, "every dollar of government indebted- 
ness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise expressly stipulated 
in the contract. Let it be understood that no repudiator of one 
farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public place, and it 
will go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to be the best 
in the world." In response Congress passed the Act to strengthen 
the Public Credit (March 18, 1869) (§ 535).! 

In conclusion the President expressed the hope that the rati- 
fication of the fifteenth amendment (§ 520) might soon place 
the ballot in the hands of the negro. 

A little more than two months later, the last spike was driven 
(May 10, 1869) which completed the building of the first rail- 
way to the Pacific. This great undertaking was brought to the 
attention of Congress in 1846 by Asa Whitney, a New York 
merchant who was engaged in the China trade. 

The discovery of gold in California renewed the interest in the 
project. Between the Western States, which lay just beyond the 
Mississippi, and the Pacific Coast, there stretched a vast wilder- 
ness broken only by the Mormon settlement at Salt Lake (§ 372). 
The people felt that regular communication must be established 
across that wilderness. Whitney induced Congress to make a sur- 
vey, and the discovery of precious metals in Colorado, together 
with the settlement of Denver, stimulated the work still more. 
A pony express between Leavenworth and Denver and Denver 
and Sacramento for San Francisco was put on in 1858. This was 
followed, two years later, by a line of stagecoaches driven by such 
men as the famous '' Buffalo Bill," — men who took their lives in 
their hands and who had to hold themselves ready at any moment 
to fight Indians and stage robbers. In i860 both of the great 
poHtical parties declared that a transcontinental railway was " im- 
peratively demanded by the interests of the whole country." The 
outbreak of the Civil War soon gave unmistakable emphasis to 
the demand for joining the East and the far West in closer 
political, commercial, and military union. 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 78. 



530 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



While the war was in progress the government offered to give 
nearly 13,000 acres of land and a loan of over ^28,000 for every 
mile of the jiroposed road which any company would build and 
equip with a line of telegraph. Two companies accepted the 
offer. The Central Pacific Company began work (1865) at the 
San Francisco end and the Union Pacific at Omaha. While 
the Central Pacific was climbing the Sierras on its way eastward 
the Union Pacific was rapidly pushing its way westward across the 
plains of Nebraska. Five years later, the engines met at Prom- 
ontory Point, near Ogden, Utah. There the last rail was laid. 




The First Pacific Railway 

The next day (May 11, 1869) a through train from New York, the 
first that ever crossed from ocean to ocean, passed Promontory 
Point on its way to San Francisco. That meant that steam and 
electricity had conquered 3000 miles of space, and that the 
Republic at last held the whole breadth of the continent with an 
iron grasp. 

Commercially, the Pacific Railway put the Eastern States in 
quick communication with China and the Indies, so that cargoes 
of teas, silks, and spices shipped from Asia could be delivered in 
New York in a month's time. 



1869-1870] 



RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 531 



Politically, the road had a most important influence. Before 
it was built the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts seemed so far 
distant from each other that many believed it doubtful if they 
could be held together under the same central government. 
But the completion of the road changed all that, for a member 
of Congress from California could leave the Golden Gate with 
the certainty that in less than a week he would be in his seat 
in the national capitol. 

The road was of equal importance from a military point of view. 
In case of need the far West could call on the East for help, and 
a corps of United States troops could be speedily transported 
from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific. 

Nor was this all. In piercing the heart of the continent the 
railway opened up a great central region for settlement. Between 
the tier of states bordering on the west banks of the Mississippi 
and the states of the Pacific slope there was, as has been said, a 
vast half-explored wilderness, which, with few exceptions, the 
Indian and the buffalo shared between them. Here was a broad 
field inviting immigration. General Crrant says that when the 
Civil War came to an end great numbers of young men who had 
fought in the Union armies went West. The construction of the 
first Pacific railway was tainted with the Credit Mobilier scandal,^ 
but — together with the four other lines which followed — it power- 
fully stimulated the western emigration movement, and aided in 
planting bodies of settlers who became the connecting link in pop- 
ulation between the states of the Atlantic and of the Pacific coast, 

523. Reconstruction completed ; the negro in Congress. When 
Congress met it completed (1869-1870) the work of recon- 
struction by removing the greater part of the remainder of the 

1 In 1864 the Credit Mobilier, a Pennsylvania company deriving its name from 
a French financial company formed to promote industrial enterprises, undertook 
the construction of a part of the Pacific railway. In the presidential campaign 
of 1872 the Vice President, the Vice President elect, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
the Speaker of the House, and a number of members of Congress were charged 
with selling their political influence in favor of the road in return for stocks furnished 
them by the Credit Mobilier Company. Congress ordered the charge to be investi- 
gated ; two representatives were censured and there the matter dropped. 



532 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1870 

legal and political disabilities which had been imposed upon the 
southern whites; it then readmitted the remaining four (§ 517) 
seceded states. 

The Secretary of State (1870) announced that the fifteenth 
amendment (§ 520) had been duly ratified and was henceforth in 
force. This finished the constitutional work of reconstruction. 
The first of those amendments (§ 476) declared the negro free 
forever, the second made him a citizen, the third made him a 
voter. He now had every right, every privilege, every opportunity 
which the law gives the white man ; in the courts and at the ballot 
box he stood on an equality with his old master ; henceforth if he 
failed to advance, the fault would be chiefly his own. 

The same year that the fifteenth amendment was ratified (1870) 
the "freedmen " entered Congress. H. B. Revels, a negro from 
Mississippi, took the seat in the Senate which Jefferson Davis had 
vacated less than ten years before. South Carolina sent Joseph 
H. Rainey, the son of slave parents who had worked in the rice 
swamps, as a representative from that state. From that time, for 
a period of nearly twenty years, every Congress had from four to 
six negro members. 

524. The "Carpetbaggers." At the close of the war many 
northern men went South. Some of them settled there as cotton 
planters and did everything in their power to aid the work of 
reconstruction in the best interests of all concerned. Others 
went simply to get political office and plunder. It was but 
natural that the southern people should regard the newcomers 
with suspicion. They lumped good and bad together under the 
general name of "Carpetbaggers," — a synonym for greedy and 
unscrupulous adventurers. The name sometimes did great injus- 
tice to worthy men ; but in a majority of cases it truthfully 
described those to whom it was applied. 

But however much the former slaveholding aristocracy hated 
the "Carpetbagger," they hated the "Scalawag" still more. 
The "Scalawag" was a renegade southerner who joined hands 
with the political " Carpetbagger " in the scramble for spoils. By 



1870] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 533 

themselves they probably could not have done much harm; but 
using the negro voter as their tool, they did an enormous amount 
of mischief from which the South has not yet fully recovered. 

Congress gave the " freedmen " (§ 511) the ballot in order that 
they might protect themselves. At the beginning of the Civil 
War there were but four states in the Union, out of the thirty-four, 
where the black man could vote ; these were at the North. In the 
South the number of colored people, taken as a whole, was only one 
fifth less than that of the whites, and in three states it exceeded 
it. The former slave fully reaUzed his power. " Now," said he, 
" the bottom rail is on the top, and we're going to keep it there." 

For a number of years the "Carpetbagger," the "Scalawag," 
and the negro ruled supreme at the polls and in the legislatures. 
They pillaged the prostrate states which lay helpless at their feet 
until they had rolled up debts aggregating nearly $300,000,000.' 
All things considered, perhaps South Carolina suffered most from 
this "carnival of crime and corruption"; but eight other states 
were in the same pitiful case. Judge Black of Louisiana felt 
moved to declare that a " conflagration sweeping over all the state 
from one end to the other and destroying every building and 
every article of personal property would have been a visitation of 
mercy in comparison with the curse of such a government." 
f' 525. The ' ' Ku-Klux Klan " ; the " Force Act " ; end of the * ' Car- 
petbag " government. This state of things roused the spirit of 
retaliation and gave rise to the " Ku-Klux Klan." It was a secret 
oath-bound organization formed especially to intimidate the negro 
and prevent his voting or getting office. At first the " Ku-Klux " 
confined themselves mainly to threats, but later they resorted to 
violence. Bands of masked men broke into negro cabins at mid- 
night, dragged the occupants from their beds, and flogged them 
without mercy. In some cases the " Ku-Klux " pushed matters 

1 The debts imposed on the reconstructed states were as follows : Alabama, $52,- 
761,917; Arkansas, 819,398,000; Florida, $i5,797!587; Georgia, 342,560,500; Lou- 
isiana, ^40,021,734; North Carolina, §34,887,464; South Carolina, §22,480,516; 
Texas, §14,930,000 ; Virginia, §47,090,866. 



534 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I87i-i872 

to the farthest extreme and deliberately maimed or murdered their 
victims. Eventually, the organization became a gang of marauders 
and robbers, who preyed on white and black alike. 

President Grant in a special message to Congress ( 187 1 ) called 
the attention of that body to the fact that the "Ku-Klux" not 
only rendered life and property unsafe, but that they interfered 
with the carrying of the mails and the collection of the revenue. 
In 1870 Congress passed the first so-called '' Force Act" against 
the " Ku-Klux Klan "; but finding that the emergency demanded 
a more "ironclad " measure, a second "Force Act" was passed 
in 1871.^ The three chief features of this act were: (i) it em- 
powered the federal courts to severely punish all attempts to deter 
any citizen, white or black, from voting or holding office ; (2) in 
case of need it authorized the President to employ military force 
to suppress disorder and to protect the polls ; (3) it temporarily 
suspended the operation of the wTit of habeas corpus. 

Under this law many arrests were made, the " Ku-Klux Klan " 
was broken up, and order was estabhshed. In 1872 Congress 
passed the Act removing Political Disabihties.^ It restored full 
civil rights to all persons at the South, with the exception of a 
few hundred who had made themselves especially conspicuous as 
leaders in the war of secession. The whites now gradually obtained 
the political control of the reconstructed states, and the reign of the 
"Carpetbagger," the "Scalawag," and the negro came to an end. 

526. The Knights of Labor ; the Federation of Labor ; estab- 
lishment of the Weather Bureau ; San Domingo ; the Treaty of 
Washington. On Thanksgiving Day, 1869, the first attempt in 
this country was made to organize all branches of manual labor 
on a permanent basis. Under the leadership of Uriah S. Stephens 
of Philadelphia, seven clothing cutters met in that city and organ- 
ized the secret society of the " Five Stars," or the Knights of 
Labor. They later (1878) adopted a platform denouncing "the 
alarming development and aggressiveness of the power of money 

1 See McPherson's History of Reconstruction, 546 ; Political Hand Books for 
1 870-1 892. - See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 94. 



1S71-] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 535 

and corporations under the present industrial and political sys- 
tems." They stated their object to be " to secure to the workers 
of society the fullest enjoyment of the wealth they create." A few 
years later (1881), the oath-bound obhgation of secrecy was abol- 
ished. The Knights report a membership of 40,000. 

The American Federation of Labor was organized in 1881 for 
purposes similar to those of the Knights of Labor. The Feder- 
ation claims a total membership of over 2,000,000. The Ameri- 
can Railway Union, organized in 1893, confines its membership 
to men employed on the railways of the LTnited States.^ 

These societies, though professedly nonpolitical, have exercised 
a marked influence on state and national legislation with respect to 
factory laws, hours of labor, and industrial arbitration ; and they 
have probably helped to shape the platforms issued of late years 
by the Labor parties. In fact, these organizations are to-day 
reckoned among the chief forces in American hfe. 

In 1870 Congress, acting on a suggestion made many years' 
earlier, established a Weather Bureau at \\'ashington for the pur- 
pose of predicting the probable course of the weather throughout 
the country a day or more in advance. The Bureau has done 
service of great value to mariners and farmers ; and, directly or 
indirectly, has been the means of saving much life and property 
from destruction by storms and floods, and has contributed greatly 
to the health and comfort of the whole community. 

Near the close of this year (1870) the President, acting con- 
trary to the advice of his Cabinet, signed a treaty with San 
Domingo for the annexation of that negro Republic to the Ignited 
States. He believed the possession of the island would secure a 
very valuable coaling station for the vessels of our navy. The 
Senate refused to ratify the treaty and the President reluctantly 
abandoned the annexation project. 

The following year (May 8, 1871) the Treaty of Washington was 
concluded with (keat Britain.^ It provided for (i) the settlement 

1 See Wright's Industrial United States, ch. xix-xx. 
'- See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No, 93. 



536 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I87i-i872 

by 'arbitration of certain questions relating to the boundary line 
between Washington Territory and British America; (2) the 
settlement of the Alabama claims, — of damages demanded by 
citizens of the United States for destruction of property by the 
Alabama and other Confederate cruisers equipped in England 
(§§ 454, 503) ; (3) the settlement of the claims of Great Britain 
for the alleged interference by our fishermen with those of Canada. 

The boundary question was referred to the emperor of Germany 
and his decision was duly accepted. The Alabama claims were 
referred to a board of five arbitrators,^ who met in Geneva, Switzer- 
land. After a lengthy session they decreed (187 1) that Great 
Britain should pay the United States ^15,500,000 in gold, which 
was accordingly done. 

A board of commissioners meeting in Halifax (1877) decided 
the perennial fisheries dispute, at least for a time (§§ 197, 235, 
548), by decreeing that we should pay Great Britain $5,500,000 
in gold and remit duties amounting to $4,200,000 more. 

This treaty of arbitration established a precedent for disposing 
of similar international questions in the future without the costly 
and cruel aid of bayonet and cannon.- 

527 . The presidential election (1872) . The President's persistent 
attempt to annex San Domingo (§526) created a strong opposi- 
tion to the administration and alienated Chase, Sumner,^ Seward, 
and Greeley, with other influential members of the Republican 
party. They not only refused to support General Grant for a second 

1 The Geneva tribunal met December 15, 1871. Charles Francis Adams, Esq., 
represented the United States and Lord Chief Justice Cockburn represented England ; 
the remaining three members of the tribunal were appointed by the king of Italy, the 
president of the Swiss Republic, and the emperor of Brazil. 

'^ Between 1794 and 1893 more than forty cases of international dispute between 
the United States and Great Britain and other European powers were disposed of by 
arbitration. Twenty-five of the decisions were in favor of the United States. Since 
then the establishment of the Hague Tribunal (§ 585) gives further promise of the 
peaceful settlement of international difficulties. 

3 Senator Sumner made a noted speech in the Senate (May 31, 1872) on " Repub- 
licanism versus Grantism," in which he concentrated " in one massive broadside all 
that could be suggested" against Grant. See Sumner's Works, XV, 85-171, and 
Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress, II, 533. 



187'2] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 537 

term, but charged his administration with having directly or indi- 
rectly encouraged the rise of political "bosses," who secured offices 
for their favorites, to the exclusion of better men. Furthermore, 
many Republicans were dissatisfied with the working of the " Force 
Act " (§ 525). They questioned whether it did not go "beyond 
constitutional limits " and doubted if it helped forward the cause 
of good government. 

This opposition to what Sumner called " Grantism " caused a 
split in the party and led to the formation of an organization which 
took the name of Liberal Republicans. They adopted a platform 
severely condemning the administration and calling for the imme- 
diate and absolute removal of all disabilities imposed on account 
of the rebelHon. They nominated Horace Greeley, editor of the 
New York Tribune, for President, with B. Gratz Brown of Missouri 
(the Labor Reform candidate) for Vice President. 

The Democrats adopted the Liberal Republican platform and 
candidates ; but some of the party " bolted " and, under the 
name of " Straight-Out Democrats," nominated Charles O'Conor. 
He, however, declined to accept the nomination. 

The regular Republicans reaffirmed the principles of the party, 
heartily indorsed the work of the administration, and renominated 
General Grant for President, with Henry Wilson of Massachu- 
setts for A^ice President. 

The Prohibitionists and the Labor Reformers now made their 
first appearance as national political parties; both have since 
continued in the field, though neither have yet obtained electoral 
votes for their respective candidates. The Prohibitionists, in 
addition to the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquor, first 
adopted woman suffrage as one of the planks in their platform.^ 

1 In 1896 a number of Prohibitionists calling themselves " Broad Gangers," or 
" Workers for Humanity," endeavored to secure the insertion of a " free-silver " plank 
in the platform adopted by the National Convention. The plank was rejected ; the 
" Broad Gangers" then seceded and formed an independent organization, under the 
name of the National Party, advocating prohibition, woman suffrage, and the free 
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to i. See Stanwood's Presidential Elections 
(revised edition), Appendix, pp. 494-497. 



538 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1.S7-2-1S73 

The political movements and combinations of recent years 
make the original platform of the Labor party of much interest. 
It demanded (i) that the federal government should issue all 
money and that banks of issue should be abolished; (2) that no 
public land should be sold or granted to any but actual settlers ; 

(3) that the immigration of Chinese laborers should be stopped ; 

(4) that the government should adopt an eight-hour day for its 
employees; (5) that the civil service should be removed from all 
partisan influences ; (6) that the government should regulate the 
charges made by railways and telegraph lines ; (7) that the occu- 
pancy of the presidential chair should be limited to a single term.^ 

At the election the popular vote stood 3,597,132 for Grant to 
2,834,125 for Greeley. Mr. Greeley died before the presidential 
electors met. Grant received 286 electoral votes against 63 votes 
given for T. A. Hendricks, B. Ciratz Brown, and other candidates. 
Grant was therefore reelected by an overwhelming majority. 

528. The new Coinage Act demonetizing silver; the Salary 
Act ; postal cards. When Congress met it passed a Coinage Act - 
(February 12,1873) ^vhich had been debated on and off for between 
one and two years. The measure did not then excite any par- 
ticular interest, though it has since been denounced as "the Crime 
of 1873." At that time neither gold nor silver was in circulation. 
The government had not resumed specie payment and "green- 
backs," or national bank notes, were in use throughout the country. 
Very few silver dollars had been coined since the mint was estab- 
lished. The average value of the issue for a period of eighty 
years was only about $100,000 a year. These silver dollars had 
disappeared and none had been seen for more than a quarter of 
a century.^ 

1 The demands made under Nos. 3, 4, 5, and 6 have since been obtained either 
wholly or in part. Nos. 3 and 5 were first demanded by the Labor party. 

'^ See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 96. 

3 The act of 1 792 established a double standard with free coinage of gold and 
silver in the ratio of i to 15 (§ 255). This act undervalued gold, which was there- 
fore exported and ceased to circulate. The act of 1834 was passed to remedy this 
by changing the ratio to i to 16 and reducing the fineness of the gold dollar from 
25.8 grains to 23.2 grains. The act of 1834 undervalued silver, as that of 1792 had 



1873] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 



539 



In the Coinage Act, (Congress now dropped the standard 
silver dollar, *' the dollar of our fathers," from the list. ^ The act 
provided for the coinage of gold and of fractional silver pieces. 
It also ordered the coinage of a special " trade dollar," much 
heavier than the former standard silver dollar. This new piece 
was issued in order to facilitate trade with China. It was used 
as legal tender for a short time until an act forbade it ; a few years 
later (1878), the issue of this special coin was discontinued. 

In addition to this legislation respecting coinage Congress passed 
another noted financial measure (1873) which received the nick- 
name of the " salary grab." The act raised the President's salary 
from $25,000 to $50,000, where it has since remained. It also 
increased the salaries of the judges of the federal courts and of 
the members of Congress, including that of the Congress which 
passed it. Popular indignation was aroused and Congress was 
compelled to repeal so much of the act as related to the increase 
of members' salaries. 

The same year (1873) Congress passed a bill which received 
the hearty approval of the whole country. It ordered the issue 
of the first one-cent postal cards (§ 404). 

done in the case of gold ; the result was tliat silver was withdrawn from circulation 
and exported to Europe. The act of 1837 made the fineness of gold and silver coins 
uniform, but silver still continued to be exported. The act of 1853 reduced the 
weight of silver coins of all denominations less than one dollar and provided that they 
should be legal tender to the amount of ^5.00 only, whereas under the previous acts 
they had been full legal tender. Up to February 12, 1873, *^^ entire number of silver 
dollars coined was only ^8,031,238; after 1853 ^^^.t coin practically disappeared 
from circulation. The act of February 12, 1873, recognized this fact by omitting 
the silver dollar from the list of coins. It provided that the unit of value should 
be the gold dollar of the standard weight of 25.8 grains; it furthermore provided 
for the coinage of a silver " trade dollar " of 420 grains (for trade with China) and 
of fractional silver coins which were made legal tender for an amount not exceed- 
ing 55-00. By oversight the use of the "trade dollar" as legal tender was not 
prohibited. In 1876 this oversight was rectified. See William C. Hunt's Notes on 
the Money of the United States (compiled from the Report of the Director of the 
Mint for Bulletin of the United States Department of Labor, No. 2, January, 1896, 
pp. i8i-ig6) ; and compare John Sherman's Recollections, 1,464; II, 1063-1065. See, 
too, Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 403 ; McMaster's Essay on A 
Century of Silver, and White's Money and Banking, 213-223. 
1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 403-405. 



540 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I87i-1872 

529. Political "rings" and '^bosses"; the panic of 1873; the 
Farmers' Alliance ; the Inflation Bill ; Resumption. One of the 
evil results of the Civil War was the speculative spirit it encour- 
aged (§ 509). The country was full of paper money, which was 
subject to great fluctuations. The actual value of the " green- 
back " was at the best not quite eighty-nine cents in coin. Spec- 
ulation bred extravagance and pohtical corruption. A *' ring " 
of politicians, under the leadership of " Boss Tweed," managed 
to get possession of the government of New York City and 
(1865-187 1 ) robbed the taxpayers of many millions. Tweed 
and his gang of fellow-plunderers were finally overthrown (1871) 
through the efforts of Samuel J. Tilden and other prominent 
citizens.^ 

The Erie Ring got possession of the Erie Railway, and the 
Whisky Ring defrauded the government of an immense amount 
of revenue. Many government officials were indicted (1875) ^^^ 
their connection with this gigantic liquor swindle. 

Later, serious frauds were unearthed in the Custom House 
departments and in the Indian Bureau. Furthermore, the Sec- 
retary of War was charged (1876) with selling sutlerships in the 
army ; he escaped impeachment by resigning his office. Senator 
Hoar of Massachusetts denounced the corruption of the times in 
a powerful speech (May 6, 1876) in which he declared that these 
frauds, with others that had been exposed, were eating the heart 
out of the Republic and turning our national triumph to " bitter- 
ness and shame." 

But if the political results of speculation were disastrous, so, 
too, were the commercial results. Cheap money encouraged 
overproduction in manufactures, overtrading with foreign coun- 
tries, and led to the building of many thousands of miles of rail- 
ways in excess of the actual demand, and through sections of 
the country where the population was insufficient to support 
them. In addition to losses through unwise investments, the 
great fires of Chicago (187 1) and of Boston (1872) wiped out 

1 See Breen's Thirty Years of New York Politics, 553. 



187^-1874] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 54I 

not less than $200,000,000 worth of property and ruined many 
business men and insurance companies. 

In the autumn of 1873 a prominent banking house in New York, 
which was largely interested in the construction of the Northern 
Pacific Railway, suspended payment. This failure was speedily 
followed by the collapse of another important house in the same 
city and the panic of a second "Black Friday"^ at the Stock 
Exchange. The panic spread from the great money center of the 
country to the country at large. "^ Credit was refused, many savings 
banks were forced to close their doors, large corporations were 
driven into bankruptcy, and mills and factories shut down, throwing 
thousands out of work. The crisis was soon reached and passed, 
but it was followed by a very long period of depression. 

Meanwhile a secret association had been formed at Washington 
(1867), which spread rapidly, especially in the Western States. 
The new order took the name of the Farmers' Alliance, or 
" Patrons of Industry." Later, the members were commonly 
known as " Grangers." Their chief object was to secure lower 
freight rates for farm produce. The panic of 1873 stimulated the 
growth of the " Grangers," and in some states they obtained the 
passage of legislative measures regulating the charges for grain 
transportation and storage."^ The order exercised a strong politi- 
cal influence, which helped to secure the Interstate Commerce 
Act (1887), and which was one of the causes favoring the organ- 
ization (1892) of the People's party, or " Popuhsts." 

In the spring following the panic of 1873 Congress passed the 
Inflation Bill. Its object was to relieve the financial strain by 
issuing $100,000,000 more "greenbacks" (§ 455). The Presi- 
dent vetoed it."^ He said that the country had an abundance of 



^ The first "Black Friday" was in the autumn of 1869, when Jay Gould and 
James Fisk's attempt to " corner " gold collapsed. 

2 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 370, 397. 

3 The United States Supreme Court decided (1S76) six cases in favor of the 
• Grangers," thereby sustaining the constitutionality of the legislation they had 

obtained. 

■* See Richardson's Messages of the Presidents. VII. 268 ; Mason's Veto Power, 80, 



542 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [iS75-i87fi 

paper currency and that Congress had pledged (1869) the faith 
of the United States to resume specie payment at the earliest 
practicable moment (§522). In 1875 Senator John Sherman 
secured the passage of the Resumption Act/ but it did not go 
into operation until four years later (§ 535). 

530. The Centennial Exhibition ; admission of Colorado. In the 
spring of 1876 a national exhibition, held under the auspices of 
the government, was opened at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. 
Its object was to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of 
the Declaration of Independence. All the leading nations of the 
world took part in it, and it was visited by nearly ten millions of 
persons. The substitution of machine power for hand labor was 
the most marked feature of the great fair. It showed that a 
hundred years had completely revolutionized manufacturing, trans- 
portation, and means of communication. Two of the most remark- 
able novelties exhibited were the recently invented electric light 
and the Bell telephone, which was then generally regarded as an 
ingenious and amusing toy of no practical value. 

The centennial year was further marked by the admission of 
Colorado, the thirty-eighth state. It represented the " New 
West." Its entrance emphasized the territorial growth of the 
nation, which began its career a century before with but thir- 
teen states stretched along the Atlantic seaboard, and with no 
claim to a single acre of the vast wilderness extending from the 
Mississippi to the Pacific. 

531. The "Greenback" party; the disputed presidential election 
of 1876 ; Indian wars. The distress caused by the long-continued 
financial depression (§ 529) induced the formation of a new 
poHtical organization calling itself the Independent National, or 
*' Greenback," party. It demanded an increase, but not an 
unlimited increase, of the paper currency issued by the govern- 
ment, and declared that the money which was good enough for 
the soldier was good enough for the bondholder. In 1869 the 

1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 98 ; Dewey's Financial History of the 
United States, 372. 



RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 



543 



Supreme Court {Hepburn vs. Griswold) had decided that such 
currency was not legal tender for the payment of all debts. Chief 
Justice Chase then said " that the Legal Tender Act violated 
justice, that it was inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution, 
and that it was prohibited by the Constitution." ^ But after the 
redrement of Chief Justice Chase, the Court reversed that decision 
in two new cases {Knox vs. Lee) 187 i and {Jidniard \s. Green- 
man) 1884. P>entually (1884) the '' Greenback " party advocated 
the issue of (xeneral B. F. Butler's " fiat money." ^ This move- 
ment developed its greatest strength in the Western States. 

A part of the Republicans urged the renomination of General 
Grant for a third term ; but the House of Representatives passed 
a resolution by 234 to 18, declaring that such a nomination would 
be " unwise, unpatriotic, and fraught with peril to our free 
institutions." 

The Republican Convention demanded the resumption of 
specie payment at the earliest practicable date. It nominated 
(jovernor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio for President and William 
A. Wheeler of New York for Vice President. 

The war cry of the Democrats was " Reform." They nomi- 
nated (jovernor Samuel J. Tilden of New York, — a "hard-money" 
man who had labored successfully to destroy the robber gang led 
by the infamous " Boss Tweed " (§529). For Vice President 
they nominated Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana. 

The "Greenback " party nominated Peter Cooper of New York. 

The South dreaded negro supremacy and cast a " solid vote " for 
T'ilden. The election w^as so close that each party claimed suc- 
cess and charged the other with gross fraud. In order to settle 
the dispute, which was fast growing serious, Congress appointed 

1 See Rhodes' United States, III, 568 ; North American Review, April, 1870, 325. 

2 Fiat Money: Paper money issued by decree or " fiat " of the national govern- 
ment and not redeemable in coin. In 1884 the "Greenback" party and the Anti- 
Monopolist party both nominated General Butler for President. Speaking ofc 
" greenbacks," he said, " I desire that the dollar so issued shall never be redeemed." 
He added that he saw no more reason why such a paper dollar should be redeemed 
than why a yardstick or a quart measure should be redeemed. Butler's Book, page 953. 



544 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1877 

a commission composed of five senators, five representatives, and 
five judges of the Supreme Court. The commission was in session 
for more than a month, during which time the whole country was 
kept in a perilous state of anxiety and alarm. The commissioners 
finally decided (March 2, 1877), two days before inauguration 
day, by a vote of eight to seven, that the certificates of returns 
showed that Hayes had received 185 electoral votes to 184 cast 
for Tilden.^ The popular vote stood 4,033,950 for Hayes to 
4,284,885 for Tilden. Governor Hayes was therefore declared 
President by a majority of one. 

In the course of Grant's presidency the Apache Indians of 
Arizona and the Modoc Indians of California began hostilities 
(1871-1872), but were speedily overcome. A few years later 
(1876), the Sioux Indians led by "Sitting Bull" massacred the 
gallant General Custer and his entire force near the Black Hills 
in Dakota territory. General Miles, the commander of the Army 
of the United States, forced the savages to surrender, but " he 
adds his weighty testimony to that of leading military men who 
have gone before him, in saying that he has never known an Indian 
war in which the white man was not the aggressor." 

532. Summary. The chief points in Grant's administration 
were : (i) the completion of the first transcontinental railway ; 
(2) the admission to Congress of representatives from all the 
seceded states; (3) the passage of the "Force Act"; (4) the 
settlement by arbitration of the Alabama claims, the fisheries 
dispute, and the northwest boundary question; (5) the organiza- 
tion of the Knights of Labor and the "Grangers"; (6) the 
demonetization of silver; (7) the financial and business panic of 
1873; (8) the opening of the Centennial Exhibition and the 
admission of Colorado; (9) the rise of the "Greenback" party 
and the Hayes-Tilden disputed election. 

1 See Stanwood's Presidential Elections, 332-344 ; McClure's Magazine, May, 1904. 



1877] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 545 

Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican), One Term 

(1877-1881) 

533. Inaugural address; civil-service reform; withdrawal of 
troops from the South. In his inaugural address President Hayes 
(§ 531) declared that he should endeavor to wipe out the "color 
line" in politics and "the distinction between North and South," 
to the end that we might have "a united country." 

There had long been an earnest demand for reform in the civil 
ser\ice (§ 527). The leader in that movement was George W. 
Curtis. But Lincoln saw its necessity before Curtis began his 
great work. A few days after the fall of Richmond, as he was 
standing with a friend, Lincoln pointed to the crowd of office 
seekers besieging his door, and said : " Look at that ! Now 
we have conquered the rebellion ; but here you see something 
that may become more dangerous to this Republic than the 
rebeUion itself." 

Grant was conscious of the same danger and made an unsuc- 
cessful effort to break up the "spoils system" (§ 349), but he 
could not drive the wedge deep enough.^ The first demand for 
a reform in this method, made in any political platform, origi- 
nated with the Labor party in 1872 (§527). 

President Hayes pledged himself to labor for a " thorough " 
reform in the civil service ; he was a man who meant every word 
he said ; '^ but although both of the great political parties had 

1 In 1865 Mr. Thomas A. Jenckes of Rhode Island introduced the first bill in 
Congress for the reform of the civil service. The bill met with ridicule and over- 
whelming defeat; but in 1871 a bill was passed giving the President power to 
establish rules for the admission of applicants for places in the civil service. Presi- 
dent Grant appointed George \V. Curtis of New York chief of a commission for that 
purpose. The object sought was to do away with the system which gave positions 
simply as rewards for party services, and to substitute competitive examinations 
which would secure an equal opportunity for all candidates. In 1873 Congress 
refused to make further appropriations for continuing the work of the commission, 
and the following year the President was obliged to abandon it. 

2 President Hayes " had a resolute will, irreproachable integrity, and a comprehen- 
sive and remarkably healthy view of public affairs." See Andrews The United 
States in Our Time, 223; Mason's Veto Power, 132, 133. 



546 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1877 

urged it in their platforms, nothing practical was done. Many 
men were indifferent; others believed with Jackson (§ 350) that 
frequent rotation in office was best for the interests of all ; while 
the " machine politicians " in and out of Congress naturally fought 
with all their might against any change which would deprive them 
of their influence and of the votes and profits it brought them. 

On another important point the President met with better suc- 
cess. He believed that the time had come for the withdrawal of 
federal troops from the South, and that the people of the recon- 
structed states must be trusted to manage their own affairs. 
Both South Carolina and Louisiana had dual and rival governors 
and legislatures, one elected by the Republicans, the other by 
the Democrats. After a conference with the governors of those 
states, President Hayes withdrew (1877) the troops and the Demo- 
crats came peaceably into power. 

534. Great railway strike. In the summer of 1877 a formi- 
dable strike broke out on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway and 
spread rapidly over a large part of the Northern States. Carroll 
D. Wright calls this movement the first great labor revolt in our 
history.^ It began with a protest against reduction of wages. 
At one time more than 100,000 men were out. They held con- 
trol of from 6000 to 7000 miles of road. Serious riots took place, 
especially at Pittsburg. Machine shops, freight houses, and freight 
cars were burned and many people were killed and wounded. 
The governors of Pennsylvania, A\'est Virginia, Illinois, and Mary- 
land appealed to the President for help. He sent detachments 
of troops, who happily succeeded in restoring order without resort- 
ing to force. The strike was unsuccessful ; its total cost in loss of 
wages and dividends, in increased taxes to cover damages, and in 
interruption to business was estimated at between $80,000,000 
and $100,000,000. 

535. The Bland- Allison Silver Act ; resumption of specie pay- 
ment. By the Public Credit Act (1869) (§522) "the faith 
of the United States was solemnly pledged to the payment in 

1 See North American Review, June, 1902. 



1878] RKCONS^rRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 547 

coin,^ or its equivalent," of all government bonds, except in cases 
where the law authorizing the issue of such obligations provided 
that the same might be paid in paper currency. vSome persons 
regarded this law as unjust since it might compel the government 
to pay specie in return for loans it had received in depreciated 
"greenbacks"; but others took the ground that since it had 
always been understood that the government would redeem the 
"greenbacks" in coin, the holders of bonds were entitled to 
receive specie payment. 

When the Public Credit Act (1869) was passed " coin " literally 
meant either gold or silver, but the act of 1873 dropped (§ 528) 
the silver dollar from the list of coins (§ 255) ; hence, as the law 
stood, all bonds calling for specie must be paid in gold. 

A majority in Congress urged the restoration of the silver dol- 
lar as legal tender, and the House voted for the free and un- 
limited coinage of silver.^ But a minority objected because the 
enormous output of that metal by the western mines had caused 
it to fall heavily in value in the world's markets. They argued 
that to revive the old standard dollar would be to issue " dis- 
honest money." 

A resolution making all bonds of the United States payable, 
at the option of the government, in silver dollars passed both 
branches of Congress in January, 1878, by a large majority. 
Later, Congress (February 28, 1878) passed the Bland-Allison 
Bill,^ which authorized the purchase of from $2,000,000 to 
$4,000,000 worth of silver per month to be coined into standard 
silver dollars. 

President Hayes vetoed the bill on the ground of the depreci- 
ated value of silver. He urged that it would be a grave breach 
of the public faith to pay the bondholders in any coin worth less 
in the market than that which had been received from them. 



^ The Secretary of tlie Treasury has always interpreted the word " coin " to mean 
gold. 

- See Johnston's American Orations, I\\ 2q6, 312. 
3 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 102. 



548 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i«78- 

" If," said he, " the country is to be benefited by a silver coinage, 
it can be done only by the issue of silver dollars of full value ^ 
which will defraud no man." ^ But Congress did not take the 
President's view ; some members believed, as did certain eminent 
bimetallists, that if the government made large purchases of silver, 
the price of that metal would rise and so bring the silver dollar to 
a parity with gold ; others argued that the community demanded 
more money and that the recoinage of silver could alone satisfy 
this demand. Others, again, asked for a "cheap dollar" on the 
ground that it would lessen the burden of taxation by enabling them 
to pay the interest and principal of the national debt in silver. 

For these reasons Congress passed the bill over the President's 
veto on the same day it was received. The act continued in 
operation from 1878 to 1890, during which time more than 378,- 
000,000 silver dollars were coined and stored in the Treasury 
vaults at Washington. Later, the total reached ^450,000,000. Less 
than a twelvemonth afterward (January i, 1879), the government, 
having accumulated more than $140,000,000 in gold coin and 
bullion, mainly by the sale of bonds, resumed specie payment ^ 
(§ 529), and all "greenbacks" presented at the Treasury or its 
agencies were promptly redeemed in gold. Very few notes were 
presented for redemption, for as soon as it was known that gold 
could certainly be had " nobody wanted it." Up to that date more 
than $400,000,000 of the principal of the public debt (§ 508) had 
been canceled. The payments from the close of the war to 1897 
averaged more than $2500 for each hour of the entire time, and 
reached a total of nearly $1,000,000,000; this left the outstand- 
ing debt at that date at about $1,800,000,000.^ The effect of 
the resumption of specie payment was to greatly strengthen the 
credit of the government and enable it to borrow all the money 

1 The market value, by weight, of the standard silver dollar was then from 90 to 
92 cents. 

^ See Richardson's Messages of the Presidents, VII, 486 ; Mason's Veto Power, 82. 

8 See John Sherman's Recollections, II, 701-702; Dewey's Financial History of 
the United States, 374. 

4 On January 1, 1901, the national debt was $1,099,191,310.36. 



188(»] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 549 

it required at low rates of interest. The result was that the chief 
part of the debt was refunded, greatly to the profit of the Treas- 
ury and of the taxpayers. 

536. The presidential election ( 1880). The presidential question 
and the question respecting the division of honors and offices had 
split the Republican party into two factions.^ One demanded 
the renomination of Grant for a third term, while the other bit- 
terly opposed it. The Republican National Convention adopted 
a platform demanding a tariff which should " favor American 
labor " and restrict Chinese imniigration. They declared that 
now that slavery had been destroyed, Mormon polygamy must go. 
After a hard struggle the factions in convention compromised by 
nominating General Garfield of Ohio for President and Chester 
A. Arthur of New York for Vice President.'- 

The Democratic Convention demanded a tariff for revenue 
only. They nominated Cieneral W. S. Hancock for President 
and W. H. English of Indiana for Vice President. 

The Greenback party (§ 531) repeated its demands for the sub- 
stitution of *' greenbacks " for the notes of national banks and 
for the unlimited coinage of silver. 

The electoral vote stood 214 for Garfield to 155 for Hancock. 
The popular vote gave Garfield 4,454,416 to 4,444,952 for 
Hancock. 

537. The improvement of the Mississippi. In 1874 Captain 
James B. Eads completed the great steel bridge across the Mis- 
sissippi at St. Louis, — " the finest specimen of metal-arch con- 
struction in the world." Captain Eads then laid before the 
government plans for deepening the South Pass, or chief mouth 
of the Mississippi, which was blocked by a sand bar, that seri- 
ously obstructed navigation. Both the state of Louisiana and the 

1 One faction styled itself " Stalwarts," or Thorough-Going Republicans ; they 
advocated the nomination of Grant and dubbed the opposition " Half-Breeds," or Half 
Republicans. The " Stalwarts " were under the leadership of Senator Conkling of 
New York, while Senator Blaine of Maine marshaled the " Half-Breeds." 

2 General Garfield ranged himself on the side of the " Half-Breeds," while 
Mr. Arthur was a prominent " Stalwart." 



5 50 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [I88O-I88I 

United States had spent a great deal in endeavoring to perma- 
nently deepen the channel of the river, but without effect. 

Captain Eads' plans were accepted, and he began the con- 
struction of a system of jetties, or artificial banks. His object 
was to narrow the river and thereby increase the force of the 
current so that it would not only deepen the channel but carry 
the sediment out to sea. He completed his great work four 
years later (1879). It proved to be an entire success. The 
river, as he anticipated, deepened its own channel to a depth 
of thirty feet, so that large ocean steamers now have no diffi- 
culty in reaching New Orleans. This improvement has saved 
the expenditure of many millions for dredging and has added 
enormously to the commerce of the chief port of the South. 

538. Summary. The principal events of the Hayes administra- 
tion were : (i) the withdrawal of federal troops from the South ; 
(2) the great railway strike ; (3) the passage of the Bland-Allison 
Silver Act over the President's veto; (4) the resumption of specie 
payment; (5) the improvement of the navigation of the lower 
Mississippi. 



James A. Garfield (Republican), One Term 
(1881-1885) 

539. Trying position of the President ; his assassination. The 

President (§ 536) was anxious to bring about a reconciliation 
between the opposing factions of the Republican party, but at 
the same time he resolved to pursue an independent course and 
make nominations to oiftce from either side, as he thought best. 
This course involved him in difficulty and made his position 
peculiarly trying. Among the disappointed office seekers was 
Charles J. Guiteau, a political adventurer, "half fool and half 
fanatic." 

Not being able to secure the appointment of consul general 
to Paris, which he coveted, he resolved to murder the President. 



l.'^si-iss;;] 



RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 551 



His avowed object was to throw the executive power into the 
hands of Vice President Arthur, who belonged to the faction 
opposed to that which chose Garfield as head of the Republic 
(§536). Guiteau shot the President (July 2, 1881);^ when 
arrested he exulted in the act of assassination and declared that ■ 
the Almighty had inspired him to commit the deed. He was 
tried for murder, found guilty, and hanged. 

540. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act; the "Star 
Route" frauds. The murder of the President gave an unmis- 
takal)le emphasis to the demand for civil-service reform (§ 533). 
Senator Pendleton of Ohio introduced a bill (1882) to give "all 
citizens, duly qualified," " equal opportunities" to secure employ- 
ment in the civil service of the United States. The bill received 
the hearty support of both the great poHtical parties. It was 
promptly passed (January 16, 1883),^ and President Arthur at 
once appointed a Civil Service Commission to carry the law 
into effect. 

The new system of filhng minor government offices was put 
in operation at Washington, where many thousand clerks are em- 
ployed in the different departments. It was gradually extended 
to all customhouses and post offices having upwards of fifty 
clerks. It was the beginning of the end of the spoils system 
(§ 349). Henceforth the rule was to be based on Napoleon's 
maxim, " No favoritism, but give the tools to those who know 
how to use them." 

Meanwhile Congress set itself to investigate the " Star Route " 
frauds. The name " Star Route " was used to designate stage 
lines for carrying the mails in parts of the country where they 
could not be carried by railways or steamboats. The whole 
number of such routes was between nine and ten thousand. A 
number of mail contractors and government officials formed a 
"ring." This "ring" got appropriations on false estimates and 

1 President Garfield lingered until autumn and then died (September 19, 1881). 
- See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 109; Johnston's American Orations, IV, 
367, 400. 



552 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [18.S3-1884 

on fictitious pay rolls, by means of which they robbed the gov- 
ernment — that is to say, the taxpayers of the country — of 
about $500,000 yearly. The gang was broken up, but unfortu- 
nately the swindlers who composed it managed to get off without 
punishment. 

541. The Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act; the tariff ; labor leg- 
islation; panic of 1884. For twenty years a law had existed for- 
bidding polygamy in the territories. The Mormons protested 
that this law was a direct violation of that article of the Con- 
stitution which forbids Congress prohibiting the " free exercise 
of religion" (Appendix, page xvi, I). But the United States 
Supreme Court {Reynolds vs. United States) decided (1878) that 
the act was constitutional.^ In 1882 Senator Edmunds of Ver- 
mont brought in a bill ^ which provided that polygamy in the 
territories should be punished by fine and imprisonment, and, 
furthermore, that the person convicted should be deprived of the 
right to vote or to hold any office or place of public trust. The 
bill passed, and more than a thousand Mormons were convicted 
and sent to the penitentiary. 

The year following (1883) the tariff was thoroughly revised 
for the first time since the war (§455). The succeeding year 
(1884) Congress established the National Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics at Washington for the purpose of collecting information 
which might be of use in the equitable adjustment of the rela- 
tions of labor and capital, and which would help to promote 
the best interests of workingmen. In 1882 Congress prohibited 
Chinese immigration for ten years ; ^ in 1 884 it enacted a more 
stringent law. It also passed the AHen Contract Labor Act,^ 
which excluded all foreign laborers under contract, when their 
work would compete with American labor. 

1 The court took the ground that while Congress had no power to interfere with 
reUgious belief as such, it had the same right to prohibit the members of a church 
from practicing polygamy that it had to forbid their offering up human sacrifices as 
part of their religious worship. See Carson's History of the United States Supreme 
Court, pp. 498, 499. 

- See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. io6. 3 Ibid., No. 107, * Ibid., No. no, 



im] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 553 

A commercial and financial panic occurred in 1 884, but it was 
not as serious as that of 1873 (§ 529). It was generally attributed 
to the overconstruction of railways or to the mismanagement of 
important lines. Much capital had been badly invested and iron 
and steel industries felt the depression. Leading bimetallists 
believed that the action of Germany in demonetizing silver ( 187 1- 
1875) was a chief cause of the panic. It was followed by an 
unusual number of strikes and lockouts.^ 

542. The presidential election (1884). There was a strong 
reaction in both of the great parties against " machine politics " 
and professional politicians. The issue, so far as one existed, 
was between the RepubHcan policy of protection and the Demo- 
cratic demand for a simple revenue tariff. 

The Republican party nominated James G. Blaine, with John 
A. Logan of Illinois for Vice President. The Democrats nomi- 
nated Grover Cleveland, with Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana 
for Vice President. Many members of the Republican party de- 
clared themselves strongly opposed to the action of the National 
Convention. These Independent Repubhcans were nicknamed 
*' Mugwoimps." '^ They cast their votes for the Democratic can- 
didate in the behef that he would use his influence to extend 
civil-service reform (§540). 

The electoral vote stood 219 for Cleveland to 182 for Blaine; 
the popular vote gave Cleveland 4,874,986 to 4,851,981 for 
Blaine. But although the Democrats triumphed, the Senate 
remained Republican. This made party legislation practically 
impossible. 

543. The New Orleans Exposition. The following December 
the Cotton Planters' Association opened (1884) a World's Fair 
in New Orleans, the largest cotton port in the L'nited States. 
The exhibition was designed to commemorate the one hundredth 



1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 409-410. 

2 " Mugwump." An Indian word occurring in Eliot's Indian Bible (1661) and 
meaning a leader or chief. The Independent Republicans accepted the nickname 
as an honorable title. 



554 'i'HE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1884-188,1 

anniversary of the shipment of cotton from this country to 
Europe. In 1784 a few bags of it, amounting in all to about one 
bale, were exported from Charleston to Liverpool. 

Slavery and the invention of the cotton gin (§ 259) gave an 
immense impetus to the production of cotton, and in i860 the 
crop amounted to 5,000,000 bales. This made cotton the " king " 
of American staples. When slavery was overthrown many beHeved 
that the chief industry of the South was ruined ; but under free 
labor the production of cotton increased enormously, and 8,000,- 
000 bales were put into the market in 1884. 

Side by side with this increase another most lucrative industry 
had grown up. Under slavery the cotton seed was thrown aside 
and every year thousands of tons were burned as useless. Free 
labor found by experiment that the seed could be made to fur- 
nish "food, fuel, oil, and fertilizer," which would sell for more 
than $30,000,000 annually. In fact, high authorities believe that 
if the cotton plant did not produce a single pound of cotton, it 
would still pay to cultivate it solely for the valuable products 
which can be obtained from the seed. 

The New Orleans Exhibition did a much-needed work in call- 
ing attention to the national wealth and immense resources of 
the Southern States, and it helped to foster friendly poKtical and 
social relations between those states and the North. Both sec- 
tions stood on a common basis of labor ; both recognized the fact 
that whatever contributed to the prosperity and progress of one 
could not fail to be of use to the other, and that however good 
independence might be, interdependence might be better still. 

544. Summary. The chief events of the administration were : 
(1) the assassination of the President and the succession of Vice 
President Arthur; (2) the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act; 
(3) the Edmunds Anti- Polygamy Act, followed by important labor 
legislation and by the opening of the New Orleans Exposition. 



1885] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 555 

Grov?:r Cleveland (Democrat), One Term (1885- 1889) 

545. The inauguration ; death of General Grant. President 
Cleveland (§ 542) was the first Democratic President who had 
been inaugurated (§ 433) for more than a quarter of a century, 
and many southerners who had not visited Washington since 
Buchanan's day came to the capital to witness the ceremony. 
Mr. Cleveland made no sweeping changes respecting government 
officials ; his declared purpose was to be faithful to the spirit of 
the civil-service reform (§ 540). 

Toward the close of July (1885), General Grant died. He had 
spent the last months of his life in writing his " Memoirs " in 
order to save his family from the consequences of bankruptcy, 
which came upon them through the fraud of a partner in busi- 
ness. It has been well said that nothing in his whole career was 
more heroic than the diligence and determination with which he 
worked at his task while he was slowly dying from an exhausting 
and painful disease. 

His funeral showed what progress reconcihation had made be- 
tween North and South. Many of the prominent men who fought 
against him followed him to the grave, and among the pallbearers 
were several Confederate generals. 

546. Cleveland's first annual message ; the tariff ; silver coin- 
age; public lands. In his first annual message to Congress (1885) 
the President called attention to the fact that the revenue of the 
government was in excess of its actual needs ; he recommended 
the adoption of a tariff which should yield enough to meet all 
reasonable demands, while at the same time it should " protect 
the interests of American labor." The Mills Bill was introduced 
" to reduce taxation," but it was defeated in the Senate, where a 
majority regarded it as a " free-trade " measure. 

He urged Congress to suspend " the compulsory coinage of silver 
dollars" by repealing the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 (§ 535). He 
recommended that steps should be taken to recover public land 
which had been obtained by fraudulent means or through defective 



5 56 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1886 

legislation for purely speculative purposes. The Land Department 
acted on this suggestion and succeeded in getting back more than 
100,000,000 acres, to be disposed of as farms and homesteads 
to actual settlers. 

547. Strikes and Anarchist riots in Chicago. The year 1886 
was noteworthy for labor troubles and strikes. The agitation 
began at the West ; it was particularly violent in Chicago. On 
the first of May 40,000 workmen struck in that city on the ques- 
tion of a reduction of time. Nearly all labor came to a standstill 
and every railway was crippled. Two days later, a band of strikers 
made an attack on the McCormick Reaper Works. The police 
undertook to defend the works, and a fight occurred in which 
several of the attacking party were wounded. 

The following evening the strikers met in the Old Haymarket. 
Violent speeches were made and the police ordered the gather- 
ing to disperse. As they were preparing to enforce the order 
a dvnamite bomb was thrown, which killed and wounded sixty 
officers. The mob then drew revolvers and began firing on the 
officers. The ofificers returned the fire, charged on the mob with 
terrible effect, and arrested a number of the leaders of the riot ; 
all were foreigners. They were tried for murder and four were 
executed ; a fifth escaped the gallows by blowing out his brains 
with some of his own dynamite. 

The result of the riot showed conclusively that the number of 
anarchists in the country was by no means large, and that the 
great body of American workingmen utterly repudiated the use 
of bombs in place of ballots as a means for securing rights or 
rectifying wrongs. 

548. Five important laws ; bills vetoed ; the Fisheries Contro- 
versy. The death of the Vice President (1885) led to the passage 
of a law regulating the order of presidential succession. Had his 
death been followed by that of the President, the country might 
have been left in a very unsettled condition, since the Constitution 
(Appendix, page xii) left the matter in the hands of Congress and 
Congress had taken no satisfactory action respecting it. 



188&-1888] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 557 

Congress now passed a new Presidential Succession Act (1886). 
It provided that in case the offices of President and Vice Presi- 
dent should both become vacant, the executive office should pass 
to the Secretary of State, and then, if necessary, to six other 
members of the Cabinet in a prescribed order. ^ 

The excited and perilous contest over the disputed election of 
1876 (Hayes versus Tilden) (§ 531) induced Congress to pass 
(1887) the Electoral Count Act,^ which empowers each state, in 
case of controversy, to decide how its own vote stands ; if it fails 
to decide, the question then comes before Congress. 

The same Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act* 
(1887) (§ 529). Under it five commissioners were appointed to 
maintain a just and uniform rate of transportation on all railway 
and steamboat lines passing from state to state. 

The Edmunds Act relating to the suppression of polygamy 
among the Mormons (§ 541) was now supplemented by the pas- 
sage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act (1887).'* It dissolved the 
Mormon Church as a corporate body, confiscated all of its 
immense property in excess of $50,000, and put it in the hands 
of trustees. 

The next year ,(1888) Congress passed a new Chinese Immi- 
gration Act (§541) (reenacted in 1892 and in 1904),^ which abso- 
lutely excluded further immigrants from that empire. 

During his administration President Cleveland vetoed more 
than three hundred bills, or more than double the number 
which had been vetoed by all preceding Presidents. These 



1 The first Presidential Succession Act, passed in 1792, provided that in case the 
President and Vice President should both be removed, the succession should devolve 
on the person acting as President of the Senate, and next on the Speaker of the House. 
The present order of succession is as follows: (i) the Secretary of State; (2) the 
Secretary of the Treasury; (3) the Secretary of War; (4) the Attorney-General; 
(5) the Postmaster-General ; (6) the Secretary of the Navy; (7) the Secretary of the 
Interior. The Cabinet was enlarged in 1889 so as to include the Secretary of the 
Department of Agriculture, and in 1903 the Secretary of the new Department of 
Commerce and Labor was made a member of the Cabinet. 

•^ See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No, 113. 

8 Ibid., No. 114. ^ Ibid., No. 118. ^' Ibid., No, 119. 



558 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1887 

vetoes covered the Dependent Pension Bill (1887)^ and several 
hundred private pension bills. The President gave as his rea- 
sons for refusing to sign the first measure that (i) it was badly 
drawn and would lead to litigation; (2) that the Union soldiers 
had been better provided for by pay and bounties than any other 
soldiers " since mankind first went to war," and that those who 
had been disabled in service were receiving liberal pensions, 
amounting to $75,000,000 a year; finally, (3) that the bill would 
subject the taxpayers of the country to an enormous additional 
expense. 

Congress failed to pass the measure over the veto, but it was 
passed and approved under the next administration (1890).^ One 
of President Cleveland's last acts was to veto the Direct Tax- 
Refunding Bill, the object of which was to reduce the surplus 
by refunding $16,000,000 levied and collected in behalf of the 
Union at the outbreak of the Civil War. 

It will be remembered that the fisheries controversy between 
the United States and Great Britain was temporarily settled in 
1877 (§ 526). In 1885 the President notified the Enghsh gov- 
ernment that we desired to abrogate the articles of the Treaty of 
W'ashington relating to this subject. This was done, and the right 
of American vessels to take fish in Canadian or Newfoundland 
waters became again a matter of dispute. 

The real difficulty was to determine the three-mile line of coast 
limitation (originally adopted by the Convention of 181 8) which 
both governments held as in some sense binding. It was agreed 
that we should not fish within this line, but the question was how 
it was to be drawn. We assumed that it should follow the curves 
and indentations of the shores of the fishing grounds ; but England 

1 This bill pensioned all who served ninety days in the War of the Rebellion 
and had been honorably discharged, and who were unable to perform manual labor, 
and the widows, children, and dependent parents of such persons. Previous acts 
(1862-1879) had provided pensions for soldiers and sailors disabled in the Civil 
War, for the dependent kinsmen of those who had died, and back pay on all pensions 
claimed in 1879 and subsequently. See Richardson's Messages of the Presidents, 
VIII, 549. 2 See Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia for i8go, 234. 



1887-] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 559 

insisted that, in all cases, it should be drawn straight from head- 
land to headland, thus excluding our vessels from entering bays 
or inlets. This important difference of opinion could not be 
settled, and it still remains open to negotiation. 

549. Increase of the navy; centennial celebration. The navy 
which had done such noble service in the Civil War was rapidly 
falling into decay. Congress took the matter in hand (1883) 
by ordering the construction of a number of first-class steel 
cruisers. At present the United States has a fleet of two hundred 
and fifty-tw^o war vessels (besides forty-five in construction or 
authorized), which in point of efticiency and speed equal any in 
the world.^ 

The autumn of 1887 completed the one hundredth birthday 
of the Constitution (§247). At the celebration held at Phila- 
delphia the President delivered an address on the great charter 
of the Republic. " We receive it," said he, " sealed with the 
tests of a century. It has been found sufficient in the past ; and 
in all the future years it will be found sufficient if the American 
people are true to their sacred trust." 

The following year (1888) the centennial of the settlement of 
Ohio (§ 258) and of the organization of the Northwest Territory 
(§ 237) was celebrated at Marietta, Cincinnati, and Columbus. 

550. The presidential election (1888) ; the Australian ballot. 
In the presidential campaign the FJemocrats made '' tariff reform " 
— in other words, " the reduction and correction of the burdens of 
taxation " — the principal plank in their platform. They renom- 
inated Cleveland for President, with Allen G. Thurman of Ohio 
for Vice President. 

The Republicans declared themselves " uncompromisingly in 
favor of the American system of protection." They nominated 
General Benjamin Harrison of Indiana for President and Levi P. 
Morton of New York for Vice President. 

1 This fleet includes 16 armored battle ships, 2 armored cruisers, 13 turret moni- 
tors, 17 unarmored steel vessels, and 204 other vessels comprising rams, gunboats, 
torpedo boats, auxiliary cruisers, submarine vessels, and torpedo-boat destroyers. 



560 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1889- 

The issue at the election was the question of the adoption of 
a revenue or of a protective tariff. The electoral vote stood 
233 for Harrison to 168 for Cleveland; the popular vote was 
5,540,329 for Cleveland and 5,439,853 for Harrison.^ 

In 1889 Massachusetts resolved to introduce, for the first time 
in American history, the Australian or secret ballot. It was 
found to possess great merit in securing independent action on 
the part of voters. Other states soon began to adopt it or some 
method suggested by it, and such ballots are now in use for both 
local and national elections in forty-two states.'^ 

551. Summary. The principal events of Cleveland's adminis- 
tration were : (i) the anarchist riot in Chicago ; (2) the passage 
of the five following important laws : the Presidential Succession, 
Electoral Count, Interstate Commerce, Dissolution of the Mor- 
mon Church, and Chinese Immigration Acts ; (3) the President's 
veto of the Dependent Pension and Tax- Refunding Bills ; (4) the 
recovering of many millions of acres of public lands ; (5) the 
increase of the navy; (6) the introduction of the Australian or 
secret ballot : (7) the Fisheries Controversy ; and (8) the celebra- 
tion of the one hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the 
Constitution of the United States. 



Benjamin Harrison (Republican), One Term 
(1889-1893) 



552. "Protection" and the South; opening of Oklahoma. In 

his inaugural address President Harrison (§ 550) said, "I look 
hopefully to the continuance of our protective system and to 

1 See McKee's National Conventions and Platforms, 232-259. 

- The claims made for the Australian or secret ballot are: (i) that it facilitates 
independent nominations for office ; (2) that the ballots are officially printed ; (3) that 
they are distributed to voters by sworn election officers ; (4) that the voter is isolated 
while preparing his ballot, that it is impossible for any one to know how he votes, 
and hence that opportunities for fraud, intimidation, or bribery are thereby greatly 
diminished. For quahfications for voting see the World Almanac for 1904, 92. 



1869-] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 56 1 

the consequent development of manufacturing and mining enter- 
prises in the states hitherto wholly given to agriculture, as a 
potent influence in the perfect unification of our people." 

The region called by the Indians Oklahoma, or the " beautiful 
land," constituted the heart of the Indian Territory. The whites 
coveted it, and " boomers " had made repeated attempts to take 
forcible possession. In 1889 the government purchased this tract 
of land from the Indians. 

The President declared that it would be thrown open to settle- 
ment on April 22. At noon of that day the blast of a bugle was 
the signal for " a wild rush across the borders." Before night- 
fall more than 50,000 emigrants had entered the new territorv. 
Towns of tents and portable houses sprang up in a day, and a 
few months later Guthrie, the capital, could boast of its four 
daily papers, its six banks, its city waterworks, street cars, and 
electric lights. 

553. The Washington Centennial ; the Pan-American Congress; 
admission of six new states ; woman suffrage. A week after the 
opening of Oklahoma the centennial anniversary of the inaugu- 
ration of Washington was celebrated in New York City (§ 249). 

In the autumn (1889) the Pan-American Congress met in 
Washington. It consisted of delegates from the leading South 
American Republics and the Republic of Mexico, who met dele- 
gates appointed by the United States, with the view of forming a 
closer political and commercial union. 

The following month (November, 1889) four new states, North 
Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington, were admitted 
to the Union. The next summer (1890) Idaho and Wyoming 
were added, making the total number forty-four. Wyoming was 
the first state admitted to the Union with a constitution granting 
equal rights of suffrage and complete political equality to women. 
Colorado, Utah, and Idaho have since adopted similar constitu- 
tions ; in 1894 Colorado elected three women to the Legislature.^ 

1 Woman Suffrage. Twenty-seven states (1904) recognize woman suffrage in 
some form ; of these states 20 give women school suffrage ; i (Kansas), full municipal 



562 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1889- 

554. A Century of Progress (1789-1889). Eet us pause here 
for a moment and see what a century accomplished m the devel- 
opment of our national history. 

1. Extent of national territory. When Washington entered 
office in 1789 (§ 249) we were a poor and struggling people, weak 
in numbers and having a comparatively small territory. 

On the north the boundary line between Maine and Canada 
was disputed ground (§ 380). Furthermore, British garrisons still 
held forts within our frontier at Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, and 
Mackinaw (§ 249). On the south Spain held the entire shore of 
the Gulf of Mexico, including the city of New Orleans and the 
mouth of the Mississippi. For this reason we had neither a foot- 
hold nor a port of any kind on the coast of the "American Medi- 
terranean." On the west the United States was bounded by the 
Mississippi, which, with all the vast region extending beyond it, 
was in the grasp of Spain, and Spain was then an unfriendly power 
(see map facing page 226). But by the time the century had 
run a little more than half of its course all these conditions had 
changed to our advantage. 

The dispute over the northern boundary line had been satis- 
factorily settled (§ 380) and the forts on the frontier evacuated 
(§265). On the south the United States had extended its pos- 
sessions so as to embrace the entire circle of the coast of the Gulf 
of Mexico (§§ 318, 384). On the west we had obtained full pos- 
session of the Mississippi from source to mouth, and had made 
the Rocky Mountains (§ 280) and finally the Pacific our national 
boundary (§§ 283, 403). 

2. Population and wealth. Our population and our wealth 
had increased enormously. In 1789 the white citizens of the 
Republic numbered far less than those of either Ohio or Illinois 
a hundred years later (§§ 258, 556). Then neither of those great 



suffrage; 2 (Arkansas and Mississippi), liquor license suffrage by petition; and 
4 (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho), full suffrage and right to hold office. 
(From information furnished by Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman's 
Journal.) 



1881.] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 563 

and prosperous states had been carved out of the " \\'ilderness " 
which stretched westward from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi 
(§258). 

When the eleventh census was taken (1890) our population 
had multipHed more than fifteen fold (§ 556), and the "Wilder- 
ness " existed only in the memory of a few^ white-haired old men 
who had helped to settle it. Our revenue, which in 1789 was only 
about ^4,000,000, had risen to over $400,000,000 by the end of 
the century we are considering. 

3. Acquisition of political rights. Again, when the first Pres- 
ident was elected (§ 247) only a very small per cent of the 
population had the right to vote. With a very few exceptions, 
all of the thirteen states hedged round that right with a property 
qualification. Land was the basis of the ballot ; without land 
manhood seldom had political power. In addition to this property 
qualification a majority of the thirteen states imposed a religious 
restriction on the voter. In some cases they required him to be a 
Protestant and a church member.^ 

The same system prevailed as regards candidacy for the Legis- 
lature or for the office of governor.'^ *' The poor man counted 
for nothing. He was governed, but not with his consent, by his 
property-owning Christian neighbors."^ 

As the nation grew in population and spread westward across 
the continent these property and religious qualifications for voters 
and office-holders gradually disappeared from the statute books. 
Long before the century came to an end they had vanished in all 
but four states of the Union, and their constitutions had been 
made a generation earlier. The ballot now belonged of right to 
the man himself, instead of being a privilege dependent on what 
the man owned. 

4. Constitutional decisions by the Supreme Court. Another 
change which had come about was that which the United States 

1 See Thorpe's Constitutional History of the American People, I. 93-97. 

•^ Ibid., I, 68, 77, 82. 

3 See McMaster's Lectures on the Acquisition of Rights, 18-21. 



564 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1889 

Supreme Court had wrought. When Washington became Presi- 
dent it was a question whether supreme authority inhered in 
the federal government or in the states. Chief Justice Marshall 
answered that question and others which hinged on it. In a series 
of luminous decisions (§ 275) he interpreted the spirit as well as 
the letter of the Constitution. He demonstrated the truth that 
the Constitution is " the paramount law of the land." He defined 
national sovereignty, state rights, and the limits of Congressional 
and judicial power. He laid down the principle of national sov- 
ereignty with absolute clearness, but he also recognized the fact 
that a state is as supreme within its own sphere as is Congress in 
the affairs of the whole Republic.^ These decisions led up to that 
memorable one which Chief Justice Chase delivered after the 
Civil War, when he declared the nation and the states to be alike 
indissoluble (§ 509).- 

5. Education, Furthermore, in the course of the hundred 
years under consideration, the United States had made as great 
progress in the advancement of education as it had in the inter- 
pretation of the Constitution or in the extension of the elective 
franchise. Free schools in the modern sense of that term can 
hardly be said to have existed in Washington's day (§§ 93, 180) ; 
but long before the end of the century they had become practically 
universal. In addition to what the individual states did for their 
maintenance and encouragement, the national government con- 
tributed large grants of lands (§§ 279, 339). The aggregate 
amount of these grants covered many thousand square miles, and 
they were destined, later, to equal in extent the entire area of 
Great Britain and Ireland.^ No nation of Europe has ever endowed 
its institutions of learning as the United States has endowed its 
common schools. These are investments which can never depre- 
ciate in value, and which will yield dividends for all time. 

6. Acquisition of industrial rights. Once more, when Wash- 
ington entered office, industrial rights as we now understand them 

1 See Thorpe's Short Constitutional History of the United States, ch. xi. 

^ Texas vs, White (1868). 3 xhe total grants now exceed 125,000 square miles. 



1889-1890] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 565 

were unknown. Skilled labor could not form unions for the 
advancement of its interests. T'he courts forbade such combi- 
nations.^ But as the century moved onward all this changed, and 
labor obtained the power to organize in its own behalf (§ 526). 
These instances show some of the geographical, i)olitical, intel- 
lectual, industrial, and economic gains which the Republic made 
in three generations. 

7. The abolition of slavery. But it made one more which in 
magnitude equals if it does not exceed all which we have men- 
tioned. The last generation of the century disposed of a question 
which had vexed and threatened the Republic from Washington's 
day to Lincoln's. It put an end to slavery, and, by so doing, 
formed a new I'nion having freedom for its corner stone. 
y 555. The new Pension Act; the Sherman Silver Act; the 
McKinley Tariff. In accordance with the earnest recommenda- 
tion of President Harrison, Congress passed (1890) the Depend- 
ent Pension Bill - which had been vetoed under the preceding 
administration (§ 548). This act nearly doubled the list of 
pensioners, making the entire number about a million. The dis- 
bursements in pensions from 1861 to 1889 amounted to nearly 
$1,000,000,000; in the eight years before the Spanish War 
(1889-1897) more than ^1,000,000,000 was expended, making 
a total of over $2,000,000,000. The total amount paid in pen- 
sions up to 1904, inclusive, was upwards of $3,000,000,000. The 
present rate of disbursement for the same purpose is, in round 
numbers, $139,000,000 a year, or over $380,000 a day. 

The same Congress repealed the Bland- Allison Silver Coinage 
Act (§535) and passed (July 14, 1890) the Sherman Silver 
Purchase and Coinage Act.^ It directed the Treasurer of the 
United States to buy 4,500,000 ounces, or about 140 tons, 

1 See McMaster's Lectures on the Acquisition of Rights, 56-60 ; and Carroll D. 
Wright on " Consolidated Labor," in the North American Review for January, 1902. 

2 See United States Statutes at Large for 1890, or Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia 
for 1890, 234. 

•''See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 121 ; Dewey's Financial History of the 
- United States, 436; Johnston's American Orations, IV, 329, 347. 



566 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY , [1890 

avoirdupois, of silver each month, and ordered 2,000,000 ounces 
to be coined into dollars each month until July i, 1891, and 
thereafter as might be deemed necessary. 

Senator Sherman, the reputed author of the law, says, " A 
large majority of the Senate favored free silver, and this bill 
was prepared to prevent the passage of an act for free silver 
coinage" (§§ 255, 528). The friends of silver beHeved that this 
enormous monthly purchase of that metal by the government 
would advance its market value ; on the contrary, it continued to 
steadily decline.^ 

Early in the autumn of 1890 Congress passed the McKinley 
Tariff (§ 555)." One object of this act was to reduce the rev- 
enue, then largely in excess of our demands, and to secure to the 

1 The coinage of gold and silver was originally (§ 255) free and unlimited to all 
persons bringing bullion to the mint. In 1873, when silver was demonetized (§ 528), 
the metal in the silver dollar was worth ^1.004, or a fraction more than the gold 
dollar; by 1878, when the Bland-Allison Silver Coinage Bill passed (§ 535), it had 
fallen to 89 cents and a fraction ; in 1890, when the Sherman Silver Purchase Act 
was passed, it had fallen to 81 cents ; thereafter it continued to fall until, when the 
Sherman Act was repealed in 1893, ^* stood at 51 cents and a fraction. The Director 
of the United States Mint (Report for 1893) attributed the fall in the price of silver 
partly to the fact that a number of the leading nations of Europe had ceased coin- 
ing it except in small sums, but mainly to the enormous increase in the output of 
the metal. In 1873 the total production was ^81,800,000; by 1892 it had risen to 
^196,605,000, — an increase of 140 per cent. 

On the other hand, Senator Jones, the great silver-mine owner of Nevada, and 
President Andrews of Brown University contended that silver had not actually fallen 
in value or in purchasing power, but that there had been a " ruinously great " rise in 
gold. See Senator Jones' speech in Johnston's American Orations, IV, 362 ; Andrews' 
United States, II, 276 ; and Prof. Francis A. Walker's writings advocating inter- 
national bimetallism. 

Up to 1873 0"ly about ^8,000,000 in silver dollars had been coined, and at that 
date none were in circulation and had not been for many years. On the first of 
October, 1896, the total issue of silver dollars was over ^437,000,000, besides ^75,- 
000,000 in subsidiary silver. A very large amount of silver bullion, estimated to be 
worth over ^125,000,000, then remained uncoined. The total gold coinage to June 
30, 1900, was ^2,167,088,113. The total amount of coin, notes, and bullion in 
''general stock" on October i, 1900, was ^2,386,450,355. The total amount of 
specie, government paper, and national bank notes in circulation January i, 1901, 
was ^2,173,251,879, or more than ^28 per capita, according to the census returns 
of 1900. See the World Almanac, 1901, 185, 186; Current History, March, 
1901, -]-!,. 

2 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 438. 



1890] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 567 

American farmer protection against competition equal to that 
granted to the American manufacturer. The duties under the new 
tariff averaged 48 yb P^^ cent, — the highest ever imposed up to 
that date. The act contained certain provisions called Reci- 
procity or " Fair Trade " Measures. They gave the President power 
to reimpose duties on certain articles on the free hst in case he 
thought that the countries exporting those articles to the United 
States levied unreasonable duties on imports of American agricul- 
tural products. This provision led to the negotiation of commer- 
cial treaties with a number of European and South American 
countries. 

556. The census of 1890; no " frontier line " ; the Patent Office 
Centennial. The " Centennial Census " (1890) reported the total 
area of the United States, including Alaska, at over 3,600,000 
square miles, and the total population (Indians not included) at 
62,622,250. 

In a single century we had gained 58,000,000 in population, 
had taken possession of the entire breadth of the continent, and 
had accumulated wealth sufficient, if equally divided, to give 
$1000 to every man, woman, and child in the Union. 

The census of 1890 also reported, for the first time in our 
national history, that no frontier line of settlements existed in 
the West. That meant that there were no longer any clearly 
defined spaces destitute of population except in barren regions 
which repelled the farmer and the stock raiser. The great Ameri- 
can march toward the setting sun which began in earnest with 
the opening of the nineteenth century (§§ 278, 339). had prac- 
tically come to an end. 

Henceforth the West would cease to mean opportunity in the 
sense it had meant it for so many generations. The United States 
still owned hundreds of millions of acres of mineral lands, and of 
arid lands which might be fertilized by irrigation, but that was all. 
It had no more free farms to offer to those men who once went out 
to build up independent homes for themselves and their children 
in the unknown wilderness. 



568 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1890-1891 

The progress of that great movement can be traced on govern- 
ment maps from decade to decade, beginning with the first census 
of 1790. Then the emigrants from the eastern states had only 
just crossed the Alleghenies. On the map of 1800 (see map 
facing page 268) we see that they had entered the Ohio Country 
and were getting possession of Kentucky. By 18 10 a few settlers 
had reached the banks of the Mississippi, opposite St. Louis, and 
were crossing over the great river. But in the northwest the prog- 
ress was slower and it took forty years more for the sturdy pioneers 
to reach the western boundary of Iowa. 

Then came another forty years' march across the plains of 
Kansas and Nebraska toward the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. 
Finally, in 1890, the bearers of the ax and the rifle met the settlers 
who were moving eastward from the Pacific states. The work of 
the pioneers was completed. The men whose grim energy and 
stalwart faith in their own manhood had found fit representation 
in Jackson and Lincoln came to a halt. They had conquered the 
wilderness which Jefferson thought it would take a thousand years 
to conquer, and they had planted it with free states. There is no 
more interesting chapter in American history than the progress of 
this movement across the continent.^ 

The following year (1891) the hundredth anniversary of the 
founding of the Patent Ofiice at Washington was celebrated. Dur- 
ing the century of its existence the ofiice had issued more than 
450,000 patents. These cover well-nigh the whole field of human 
industry. They began with the first patent issued in 1790 for 
improved methods of making pearlash and potash — which was 
often the first crop which the men who cleared the wilderness got 
from the soiP — and they came down to those for the electric 
motors of the present day. A large proportion of patents are for 

1 See " Frontier" in index to Thorpe's Constitutional History of the American 
People and in Sample's American History and its Geographic Conditions; see 
too Prof. F. J. Turner's "Contribution of the West to American Democracy," in 
the Atlantic Magazine, January, 1903. 

^ In early days the backwoodsmen burned their timber and made pearlash and 
potash from the ashes. These products brought ready money in the market, 



1892-1893] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 569 

new or improved labor-saving inventions. Carroll D. Wright tes- 
tifies that American machinery has shortened the hours of work, 
increased the workman's wages, and reduced the prices he pays 
for all kinds of manufactured goods. 

557. Labor troubles at Homestead. In the summer of 1892 the 
Carnegie Steel Company at Homestead near Pittsburg gave notice 
that it should be compelled to reduce the pay of its employees, — 
more than three thousand in number. The men refused to accept 
the reduction and hanged the president of the company in effigy. 
Thereupon the company shut its doors two days before the contract 
time expired. 

The discharged men took possession of the works and refused 
to give them up. The company hired a strong body of armed 
Pinkerton detectives to dislodge them. A battle ensued in which 
a number were killed and wounded on both sides, and the Pinker- 
tons were compelled to surrender. The governor of Pennsylvania 
sent the entire militia force of the state to Homestead to restore 
order. The Carnegie Company then opened their mills with new 
men. The strike lasted about twenty weeks ; it cost the company, 
the strikers, and the pubHc an average of more than $200,000 a 
week, or a total of $4,325,000. 

558. The Supreme Court and the Mormon Church ; amnesty to 
the Mormons. In 1890 the United States Supreme Court had 
affirmed the constitutionality of the Edmunds-Tucker Law (§ 548) 
confiscating the property of the Mormon Church. A few months 
later, the head of that church publicly advised his followers to 
obey the law and renounce polygamy. A general conference held 
at Salt Lake City (1890) pledged the whole body of Mormons to 
accept the advice of their president. Thereupon President Har- 
rison issued a proclamation of amnesty (1893) to the Mormons 
and the confiscated church property was restored. 

559. The presidential election (1892). The chief issue in the 
presidential campaign was the tariff question. The Republicans 
reaffirmed " the American doctrine of Protection " and renomi- 
nated President Harrison, with Whitelaw Reid of New York for 
Vice President, 



570 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1893 

The Democrats denounced protection as " a robbery of the great 
majority of the American people for the benefit of the few." They 
demanded a tariff for revenue only and nominated ex-President 
Cleveland, with Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois for Vice President. 

The National People's party, or " Populists" (§ 529), now held 
their first National Convention (1892). They demanded free and 
unlimited silver coinage (§ 555) in the ratio of 16 to i (§ 255) and 
a speedy increase in the issue of money to not less than $50 per 
capita (§ 555, note). The remaining planks in their platform did 
not differ very essentially from the socialist features of those of the 
Labor party or of the " Grangers" (§§ 527, 529). The " Popu- 
lists" nominated General Jatnes B. Weaver of Iowa for President 
and James G. Field of Virginia for Vice President. 

In the five states of Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota, and 
Wyoming the Democrats voted for the " Populist" candidate. 

At the election Cleveland received 277 electoral votes, Harrison 
145, and Weaver 22. The popular vote stood 5,556,543 for 
Cleveland, 5,175,582 for Harrison, and 1,040,886 for Weaver. 

560. Summary. The principal events of Harrison's administra- 
tion were the passage of the Dependent Pension Act, the Sherman 
Silver Act, and the McKinley Protective Tariff. Six states were 
admitted, one with woman suffrage ; and the first vessels of our 
new steel navy were built. The Washington Centennial, the 
Census Report with its " no frontier hne," the Patent Office 
Celebration, the Homestead Strike, and the appearance of the 
"Populists " in national politics also demand notice. 

Grover Cleveland (Democrat), Second Term 
(1893-1897) 

561. Cleveland's inaugural address; the Columbus celebration; 
the Columbian Exposition. On the 4th of March, 1893, the Dem- 
ocratic party came into full control of all departments of the 
national government. In the inaugural address of his second term 
of office (§559) President Cleveland dwelt mainly on the necessity 



1893] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 571 

of a ''sound and stable currency" and of " tariff reform." He 
urged that thetg should be no more " protection for protection's 
sake," and called on the people to support the government instead 
of looking to the government to support theniv 

The four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by 
Columbus had been celebrated (1892) in the schools throughout 
the United States. The celebration was resumed in the spring oi 
1893 by an international naval review held in New York harbor. 
This pageant was prehminary to the opening of the '' Columbian 
Exposition " at Chicago on the first of May. The exposition was 
in every way worthy of the purpose for which it was planned, and 
it would be difficult to conceive of a more magnificent spectacle 
than this greatest of world's fairs extending for two miles along 
the shore of Lake Michigan. 

562. The panic of 1893; repeal of part of the Sherman Silver 
Act; the "Force Act" repealed; the Bering Sea case. -In the midst 
of the Columbian celebration a terrible financial panic ^ swept 
over the country. Over three hundred banks suspended pay- 
ment, business was paralyzed, failures multiplied, and a fourth of 
the railway capital of the country was in the hands of receivers. 
This occurred at a time when the total amount of silver stored in 
the Treasury vaults at Washington or in circulation among the 
people was nearly ^600,000,000. 

The panic appears to have been caused by the action of foreign 
holders of our stocks and government securities. They believed 
that we intended paying our debts in silver dollars, worth then 
about 67 cents. ^ For this reason they made haste to sell their 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 444. 

2 In July, 1S92, the market value of the silver dollar was 88 cents ; in June, 1S93, 
the British government closed the mints of India to the free coinage of silver, and the 
market value of the dollar speedily fell to 67 cents. 

Prof. Francis A. Walker, an earnest advocate of international bimetallism, took 
the ground that the only true way to raise the price of silver was to induce the lead- 
ing powers of the Old World to join the United States in remonetizing that metal. 
On the other hand, the Free-Silver party contended that the United States could and 
should act independently of Europe in the matter. See Walker's International 
Bimetallism, Preface, et seq. 



572 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1893-1894 

holdings at whatever price they could get. This caused depression 
and *' tight money" in New York and throughout the country.^ 

The crisis was so alarming that the President summoned an 
extra session of Congress (August 3, 1893) to consider what should 
he done. He believed that the primary cause of the panic was 
the continued purchase and coinage by the government of enor- 
mous quantities of silver in a steadily falling market for that metal. 
In accordance with the President's recommendation Congress 
proceeded to discuss the proposed repeal of the silver-purchase 
clause in the Sherman Act (§555). Senator Sherman himself 
spoke earnestly for that repeal.'^ After two months' debate it was 
carried in the Senate by a majority of 1 1 ; in the House a majority 
of 100 voted for it, and it at once received the President's approval 
(November i, 1893).^ Congress later repealed the " Force Act" 

(§525). 

A controversy had long been going on with England respecting 
the infringement of our rights in Bering Sea. We claimed that 
when we purchased Alaska (§ 520) we thereby obtained the power 
to close that sea against foreign seal hunters. It had been agreed 
to settle the matter by arbitration. The commission appointed 
reported (1893) that the sea must remain open, but that we had 
the right to take measures to protect the seals at certain seasons. 
This decision ended the dispute. 

563. The Coxey " army" ; the Chicago strike. The panic and 
business depression (§ 562) of the winter of 1893-1894 gave rise 
to a remarkable movement. One Coxey started from Massillon, 
Ohio, to lead an "army" of the unemployed to Washington to 

1 The western " Populists " declared that the panic was caused by a conspiracy- 
hatched by British and American bankers with Mr. Cleveland's encouragement for 
the express purpose of driving silver money out of use. See Political Science Quar- 
terly, December, 1893. 

2 Senator Sherman said : " The free coinage of silver and gold at any ratio you 
may fix means the use of the cheaper metal only. ... No man will carry to the 
mint one ounce of gold to be coined into dollars when he can carry sixteen ounces of 
silver, worth but little more in the market than half an ounce of gold, a.n^d get the 
same number of dollars." See Sherman's Recollections, II, 1191. 

3 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 125. 



im] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 573 

demand aid from the government. Coxey's example led to the 
formation of similar "armies" in Cahfornia and other parts of 
the West. They forced freight trains to transport them and lived 
" tramp " fashion off the country through which they passed on 
their way toward the national capital. 

"General" Coxey with his followers of the "Commonweal of 
Christ " reached Washington the last of April (1894). The police 
forbade his addressing the people from the steps of the capitol, and 
the " Commonwealers " soon deserted him. The other " armies " 
gradually broke up, and the threatened demonstration which had 
drawn recruits frqm fourteen states and two territories ended in 
derisive and decisive failure. 

About midsummer (1894) the employees of the Pullman Car 
Company, at the Pullman Works near Chicago, struck against a 
reduction of wages. The men employed on the principal railways 
radiating from Chicago struck in sympathy and refused to haul 
Pullman cars. Serious riots ensued, a great amount of property 
was destroyed, and the police and the mihtia were defied. The 
President sent United States troops to Chicago to maintain com- 
merce between the states, protect government buildings, enforce 
the decrees of the federal courts, and prevent interference with the 
carrying of the mails. In all, it required a force of more than 
14,000 police, militia, and troops to hold the strikers and the 
mob effectually in check. The strike caused a loss estimated at 
^87,000,000. Good authorities make the total cost of the three 
great strikes of 1877 (§ 534) 1892 (§ 557), and 1894 about $172,- 
000,000, or a loss of more than $30,000 a day for every working 
day of the seventeen years covering the period.^ 

564. Hawaii; the Wilson-Gorman Tariff; the income tax; the 
Atlanta Exhibition; the "New South"; the "New West." A 
revolution occurred in Hawaii early in 1893, and the revolutionists, 
after dethroning the queen, opened negotiations for annexation to 

1 See Carroll D. Wright's Industrial Evolution of the United States, ch. xxv- 
xxvi; The North American Review, June, 1902; Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia for 
1877, 1892, 1894. 



574 '^'^^^ STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1894-1895 

the United States. During this time an American protectorate 
was declared. President Cleveland sent commissioners to inves- 
tigate the condition of affairs ; acting on their report, he refused 
to continue the protectorate or to favor annexation, but issued 
a proclamation (1894) recognizing Hawaii as an independent 
Republic. 

Meanwhile Congress was discussing the Wilson-Gorman Tariff 
for reducing " taxation " and providing " revenue." As originally 
drawn it abolished duties on raw materials and on the necessaries 
of life, but in its progress through the Senate the bill received more 
than six hundred amendments. These so changed its character 
that the President would not give it his approval, and it became 
a law without his signature (Appendix, page ix, § 7).^ The new 
tariff reduced the rate of duties about 11 per cent, making the 
average rate 37 per cent (§ 555). Wool was the chief raw mate- 
rial it admitted free. An income tax was appended to the tariff, 
but the United States Supreme Court (1896) decided it to be 
unconstitutional. 

The following autumn (1895) the " Cotton States and Interna- 
tional Exhibition" was held at Atlanta. The exhibition showed the 
marv^elous progress the " New South" had made since the war. 

The buildings stood in Piedmont Park on the very ground where 
thirty years before Sherman had planted the batteries which threw 
the first shell into Atlanta. Since then not only Atlanta but the 
whole section it represented had risen from its ruins. The South 
was no longer poor (§§ 543, 552) ; between 1880 and 1890 its 
valuation had increased nearly $4,000,000,000. It had ceased to 
be a purely agricultural country, dependent on the North for its 
manufactured goods. Mills had sprung up which spun and wove 
hundreds of thousands of bales of cotton, and by the aid of 
improved machinery a single operative could in a twelvemonth 
produce cloth enough to supply 1500 persons. 

The South, too, is naturally rich in iron and coal, but before the 
war these mineral treasures had scarcely been touched. Now all 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 455. 



1895] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 575 

had changed ; mines had been opened, millions of tons of coal 
had been dug, and enormous quantities of iron smelted.^ This 
was the work of free labor; as ex-President Harrison said : "The 
Emancipation Proclamation was heard in the depths of the 
earth. . . . Men were made free and material things became our 
better servants." 

The intellectual progress of the South has kept pace with her 
material growth. Thanks to the labors of the different religious 
denominations of the country and to the princely gifts of George 
Peabody, John F. Slater, and Paul Tulane, schools and colleges 
were opened for both white and black at a time when the people 
of that section were too poor to undertake such work for them- 
selves. Since then the South has raised and expended more than 
^400,000,000 on the education of her children, so that all may 
have an '' even start in life." Of this sum the southern people 
have given a generous share toward the maintenance of colored 
schools. 

In this astonishing advance the negro has taken part. A little 
more than a generation ago he had no record; he was simply 
a drudge driven to his daily toil by the overseer's whip. He 
''knew nothing, owned nothing, was nothing." The first school 
for freedmen was opened in the autumn of 1861 under the guns 
of Fort Monroe. 

To-day over 55 per cent of the negroes can read and write, ^ and 
an increasing number are becoming property owners and tax- 
payers. It is true that the population of the section known as the 
" Black Belt " moves forward slowly ; nevertheless it moves, and 
idleness, ignorance, and degradation are gradually giving way 
to the black man's desire to know something, to do something, to 
have something, and to be something. Part of this progress he 
owes to the lessons which he or his ancestors learned in the hard 
" school of American slavery," ^ and part to what the South, with 

1 In i8go the South mined 15,000,000 tons of coal and smelted 1,600,000 tons of 
iron ore ; since then the production has increased enormously. 

2 See census of 1900. 3 See Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery, 16. 



576 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

the help of such men as Booker T. Washington, has done and is 
doing in his behalf. 

If we turn from the " New South " to the " New West," we find 
growth in population, industrial enterprise, and wealth without 
a parallel. Since the war vast solitudes have been settled and 
thousands of miles of railways constructed. Towns and cities 
have sprung up, mines of precious metals have been opened, and 
cattle and sheep ranches and grain farms established on a colossal 
scale. On a single wheat farm in one of the Dakota states, a 
man plows a straight four-mile furrow. It takes him from morn- 
ing to noon to go down its full length, and he gets back to the 
starting point just in time for supper. In Texas there are cattle 
ranches which embrace from one to two hundred thousand acres, 
all inclosed by a single wire fence. The westerner '' measures 
things with a big yardstick." ^ 

The food products of that section alone would suffice to feed 
nearly the entire population of the United States. In 1890 the 
hve stock was valued at over ^1,000,000,000. A single state pro- 
duces over sixty million bushels of wheat for its annual harvest, 
and the mills of a single city turn out a hundred thousand barrels 
of flour a week. 

^' 565. The Venezuela controversy ; the Arbitration Treaty ; admis- 
sion of Utah ; extension of civil-service reform. For more than 
half a century a controversy had existed between Venezuela and 
Great Britain respecting the boundary line of British Guiana. In 
his third annual message (1895) President Cleveland said that 
he should renew his efforts to induce the disputants to settle the 
question by arbitration in order "to remove from this hemisphere 
all causes of difference with povyers beyond sea." Great Britain 
declined to accept the proposal, and the President sent a special 
message'^ to Congress (December 17, 1895), urging the applica- 
tion of the Monroe Doctrine (§ 331) to the case and asking that a 
commission should be appointed to determine " the true divisional 

1 See Semple's American History and its Geographic Conditions, 243. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 126. 



1895-1896] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 577 

line between the Republic of Venezuela and British Guiana." 
A very large part of the American people greeted the message 
with enthusiastic approval, but its warlike tone alarmed the stock 
market and securities fell with panic-like rapidity. 

Congress authorized the appointment of commissioners, but 
before they had completed their labors Great Britain agreed to 
submit the whole matter to arbitration. This was done under a 
treaty made to that effect, but the question was not fully and 
satisfactorily settled until 1899. 

Meanwhile (1896) Utah had been admitted to the Union, mak- 
ing the total number of states forty-five. 

The cause of civil-service reform (§ 533) had been pushed for- 
ward by President Arthur and his successors until the whole num- 
ber in the classified service had risen from about 15,000 to nearly 
50,000. In the spring of 1896 President Cleveland, by one stroke 
of the pen, added more than 40,000 positions or offices, raising 
the total to nearly 90,000, or about one half of the entire number, 
classified and unclassified, then in the civil service. The party 
which gained the presidential election (1896) pledged itself to 
enforce and extend the Civil Service Law " wherever practicable." 

566. The presidential election (1896) . The two main questions at 
issue were : (i) the free and unlimited coinage of silver ^ (§§ 255, 
528, 555) and (2) that of a protective tariff. The Republicans 
declared themselves " unreservedly for sound money " and unal- 
terably '' opposed to the free coinage of silver except by inter- 
national agreement with the leading commercial nations of the 
world." They also declared that " protection " was " the bulwark 
of American independence." 

They nominated Major William McKinley of Ohio for President, 
with Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey for Vice President. 

On the refusal of the Convention to adopt free silver, Senator 
Teller and twenty other delegates, representing the six states of 
Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, and Utah, 
seceded from the Convention and from the Republican party. 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 460. 



5/8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1896 

The industrial depression following the panic of 1893 (§§ 562, 
563), the low price of wheat, and the great difficulty many west- 
ern farmers experienced in raising money to pay the interest on 
their mortgaged homes, all favored the demand for silver cur- 
rency (§§ 535, 546, 555, 559, 562). For this reason the Demo- 
crats demanded " the free and unlimited coinage of both silver 
and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to i, without waiting 
for the aid or consent of any other nation." ^ They furthermore 
demanded that tariff duties should be levied for revenue only. 

They nominated William J. Bryan of Nebraska for President, 
with Arthur Bewail of Maine for Vice President. 

A large number of Democrats refused to support the free-silver 
platform. They took the name of the National Democratic party 
and adopted a platform upholding '' the gold standard." They 
nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois for President, with Simon 
B. Buckner of Kentucky for Vice President. 

The People's party, or " Populists " (§§529, 559), had already 
held their second National Convention. They adopted the free- 
silver plank of the Democratic platform and nominated the Demo- 
cratic candidate for President, with Thomas E. Watson of Georgia 
for Vice President. The general tone of the "Populist " platform 
decidedly favored that form of socialism in which the nation or 
the state undertakes to act for the individual. They demanded 
that the government should own and operate the railways and 
telegraph hnes. 

At the election McKinley received 271 electoral votes and 
Bryan 176. The popular vote stood 7,104,779 for McKinley to 
6,502,925 for Bryan. Many thousands of "Gold Democrats" 
cast their votes for the Republican candidate.^ 

567. Summary. The chief political events of President Cleve- 
land's administration were : (i) the repeal of the Sherman Silver 
Act and the " Force Act " ; (2) the Bering Sea and the Venezuelan 

1 The bullion value of the standard silver dollar was at that time less than 50 cents. 

2 See Stanwood's Presidency, or McKee's National Conventions and Platforms, 
290-329. 



1897] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 579 

arbitration settlements ; (3) the passage of the Wilson-Gorman 
Tariff; (4) the great extension of civil-service reform and the 
admission of Utah into the Union. Other events of greater or less 
importance were the opening of the World's Columbian Exposi- 
tion, the exhibition at Atlanta, the panic of 1893, the march of 
the " Coxey Army," and the Chicago strike. 

William McKinley (Republican), Two Terms 
(1897-1905) 

568. Inaugural address ; the Dingley Tariff. In his inaugural 
address President McKinley (§ 566) declared himself for " sound 
money," for a new revenue-protective tariff, for strict economy 
in the management of the government, for the advancement of 
civil-service reform, and for the maintenance of peace with all 
the nations of the world. 

The new administration was called upon to deal with a serious 
deficit in the revenue. This deficit had been going on since 1894, 
and it was estimated that it would amount to ^200,000,000 in 
1897. The pressing need of money to meet the current expenses 
of the government compelled the President to send a special mes- 
sage to Congress, in which he declared that tariff legislation was 
the " imperative demand of the hour." 

In accordance with his recommendation Congress passed the 
Dingley Tariff Bill.^ The object of the measure was stated to be, 
•' To provide revenue for the support of the government and to 
encourage the industries of the United States." 

The Dingley Tariff differs from the Wilson-Gorman Act (§ 564) 
in several important respects : First, it takes wool, hides, and 
certain other raw materials from the free list and places them 
upon the dutiable hst. Secondly, it generally imposes a higher 
rate on woolens, silks, and other textile fabrics. Thirdly, in many 
cases it levies specific or compound duties instead of ad valorem 

1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 463. 



580 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HIS'lORY [1897- 

duties.-^ Fourthly, it concedes a somewhat broader range of reci- 
procity duties (§ 555). 

The Dingley Tariff expressly keeps in force the anti-trust clauses 
of the Wilson-Gorman Act, which forbid all combinations "in 
restraint of lawful trade," or of " free competition," or '' to increase 
the market price in any part of the United States " of any imported 
article. 

569. Growth of productive power ; great corporations and trusts. 
Since the adoption of the Constitution economic conditions in the 
United States have entirely changed. This is the natural and ine\i- 
table result of the enormous increase in manufacturing and other 
forms of productive power, and in the rapid growth of capital. 
These compel new methods of doing business. Less than a cen- 
tury ago most of the manufactured goods produced in this country 
and throughout the world were made by hand. Clothing and boots 
and shoes are familiar examples. Now nearly every manufactured 
article is made by machinery. To-day a single workman operating 
one or more machines can often produce as much as twenty-five 
men could in Washington's time. 

This radical change has had far-reaching results. First, the use 
of machinery has made many kinds of goods much cheaper '^ and 
has greatly extended their consumption among all classes of peo- 
ple. Secondly, notwithstanding this increase of consumption, the 
manufacturing power of the country is now so enormous that from 
time to time the market is glutted by overproduction, and capital 
and labor are forced to stand idle for an indefinite period, at heavy 
loss to both. 

1 These specific duties consist of a certain rate levied without regard to the cost 
or value of the goods imported, as, for instance, forty cents per yard on all silks. 
Ad valorem duties are levied on a sliding scale according to the value of the goods, as, 
tor instance, forty cents per yard on all silks costing a certain sum, with an increase 
of duty as the silk rises in price. Compound duties are a combination of specific and 
ad valorem rates. 

2 For instance, when F. C. Lowell began to manufacture cotton cloth at Waltham, 
Massachusetts, in 1814 (see § 314), the price was thirty-three cents a yard ; he pre- 
dicted that the use of improved machinery would in time reduce it to eight cents 
a yard. His friends ridiculed the idea, but it has long since been realized. See 
Cowley's History of Lowell, page 40. 



1897] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 581 

One result of this condition of things has been a constant reach- 
ing out in search of new markets in different parts of the world. 
This effort, as will be seen later (§ 570), has met with a large 
measure of success. 

A second result has been the reorganization of methods of 
doing business, and the growth of great private fortunes amount- 
ing, in a number of individual cases, to several hundred millions 
of dollars. The past quarter of a century has seen the formation of 
many great corporations and " trusts," — that is, the combination 
of a number of corporations under one management. The object 
sought is to reduce the cost, increase the aggregate profit, check 
excessive production, and restrain or destroy competition. Con- 
gress passed an Anti-Trust Act (1890) to check this tendency to 
consolidation, but 'the law has had little, if any, practical effect. 

This movement toward combination was first seen on a large 
scale in the union of independent or rival lines of railways. It 
next showed itself in the organization of the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company (188 1), which now practically controls the tele- 
graph lines of the United States. In like manner the Standard 
Oil Company absorbed (1881) the petroleum trade of the country. 
At the present time, iron, steel, petroleum, sugar, tobacco, cotton- 
seed oil, and many other products and manufactures are controlled 
by corporations or " trusts." The same movement of consolidation 
is seen in retail business in the establishment of department 
stores, which bring together an immense variety of goods under 
one roof. 

This tendency to combine, which is characteristic of our day, is 
seen in federations of labor as well as in federations of capital. 
It has led to much legislation, it has brought new forces into the 
field of political action, and it has given rise to earnest and hon- 
est attempts to adjust and harmonize the relations of employer 
and employed. Finally, it has stimulated the Socialists to urge 
cooperation in production, and municipal state or federal ownership 
not only for all lines of transportation, communication, and other 
public utilities, but for all mines, oil wells, and coal fields ; while 



582 THE STUDENT^S AMERICAN HISTORY [1897-1899 

some radical thinkers of the Henry George school declare that the 
land itself should cease to be private property and should be held 
by the commonwealth or the nation and leased to the people. 

570. Enormous increase of exports ; inventions and discoveries ; 
the Congressional Library. In connection with the subject of the 
productive power of the country attention should be called to the 
opening of new markets abroad and the immense increase of our 
exports. In 1898 we shipped to Europe breadstuff s, provisions, 
and cattle and sheep valued at upwards of ^500,000,000. 

Next, in' addition to our regular exports of cotton, petroleum, 
tobacco, and other staples, we are now sending abroad a constantly 
increasing quantity of iron, copper, steel, hardware, tools, machin- 
ery, furniture, and manufactured wood. 

Our locomotives are going to Russia, China, Japan, and in some 
cases even to England. India is importing our steel rails and 
Austria our steel water pipes. American sewing machines, type- 
writers, bicycles, watches, and revolvers, unless shut out by tariff, 
are found in every country of Europe. Great Britain not only 
sends us large orders for machinery and cars to operate electric 
roads, but has recently, for the first time in our history, imported 
a cargo of Pennsylvania steel plates for shipbuilding. 

In less than a quarter of a century our exports have more than 
doubled. In 1904 they aggregated over $1,460,000,000, and 
exceeded our imports by nearly $470,000,000.^ Again, the pro- 
duction of coal, iron, and petroleum has increased from five to 
seven times faster than the increase of population, and the home 
consumption is growing proportionately. 

These statistics appear to indicate that we are advancing to a 
point where we shall be recognized as holding the controlling 
influence in the commerce of the world. Should our exports 
continue to increase in the same ratio, the time may come when 
the globe will be practically girdled with American rails and the 
seas traversed by steamships built of American steel and freighted 

1 See the Government Report of the Foreign Commerce of the United States 
for 1904, 1 192. 



FOREIGN EXPORTS; PRODUCTION OF 
IRON AND STEEL 

The total value of exports from the United States in 1904 
reached the enormous amount of over $1,460,000,000. This 
was an excess of nearly $470,000,000 over imports. 

The present rate of increase of the population of the United 
States is about 21 per cent, but statistics prove that both our 
exports and our home consumption are increasing far more 
rapidly even than our gain in population. 

The United States now produces more iron than any other 
nation on the globe. Formerly Great Britain ranked first; 
it is now second, and Germany ranks third. See diagram 
below showing the production of pig iron in tons (1865-1903). 

But steel is now rapidly taking the place of iron, and the 
United States has become "the master of the world" in 
the making of steel. This great change has taken place since 
1865. In that year the total output of steel in this country 
was less than 12,000 tons; in 1875 it was over 389,000 tons; in 
1885 it exceeded 1,711,000 tons; in 1895 i* was over 6,114,000 
tons ; and in 1902 it was nearly 15,000,000 tons, or no less than 
1250 times greater than it was in 1865. 

This wonderful advance is due, first, to our greatly improved 
methods of manufacture ; secondly, to the substitution of 
coke for coal ; and, thirdly, to the enormous stimulus given to 
production by the recent rapid extension of steam and electric 
railways, and the use of steel for building purposes. 

The progress in this direction is strikingly illustrated by 
the amount of capital now invested in this production. In 
1901 a company was organized for the manufacture of steel, 



with a capital of over a 
lars, — an amount which 
ital reported by the 
employed in all of the 
facturing industries of 



rSOj\ 



iSjo. 
:, 865, 000 



thousand millions of dol- 
exceeded the entire cap- 
census of i860, as then 
mechanical and manu- 
the United States. 



1875- 
2,266,581 



. 18S0. ■ 
4,295,414 



iSSj. 
4,529,86 



i8qo. 
10,307,028 



I8q3. 
10,579,864 



IQ03. 
5,000,000^ 



* Practically the whole of this enormously increased production of iron was utilized 
i at home for the manufacture of finished products of iron and steel of which the expor 
' tations have grown from less than $30,000,000 in 1894 to nearly ^i 12,000,000 in 1904. 



1897-1899] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 583 

with American products, manufactures, machinery, tools, and labor- 
and time-saving inventions.^ 

A landmark of progress in a different direction and one of 
equal interest is seen in the Congressional Library Building. 
This magnificent white granite structure was completed and 
opened late in the autumn of 1897. It has room for nearly six 
million volumes. Next to the capitol, which it faces, it is gen- 
erally considered to be the finest public building in Washington, 
and perhaps the finest of the kind in the world. 

571. " Greater New York " and other cities ; municipal govern- 
ment ; revised state constitutions. On New Year's Day, 1898, the 
charter of " Greater New York " went into operation. The metrop- 
olis now includes Brooklyn and many suburban towns. It covers 
an area of nearly 360 square miles, a territory equal to more than 
one fourth the state of Rhode Island, and comprising a population 
estimated at over 3,500,000, which is rapidly increasing. 

1 Among the recent inventions not previously mentioned, attention may be called 
to the following: The machine gun, smokeless powder, fixed ammunition, breech- 
loading cannon ; the Westinghouse air brake for cars, the automatic electric signals, 
the interlocking safety switch, the automatic car coupler, vestibule trains, the Pull- 
man and the Wagner palace cars ; machinery for making shoes, and for forging steel ; 
the compressed air drill, the sand blast for cutting designs on glass ; the electric search 
light; electric welding and heating; the self-binding reaper and harvester; aluminum 
ware ; enameled kitchen ware ; dyes made from coal tar ; wood paper ; wire nails, 
gimlet-pointed screws, plain and barbed wire fence ; the cash carrier for stores, the 
passenger elevator; ocean steamers built of steel with water-tight bulkheads and 
twin screws ; the hydraulic dredge ; the gas engine, the Corliss engine ; the voting 
machine ; the tin-can-making machine ; water gas ; Yale, combination, and time 
locks ; the typewriter, the typesetting machine, the bicycle, and the automobile ; the 
knitting machine, the ice-making machine, the thrashing machine, corn-harvesting 
machines ; vulcanized rubber, celluloid ; canned foods ; the grain elevator ; the eccen- 
tric lathe ; the storage battery ; the dynamo ; the fire-proof safe ; the phonograph ; the 
kinetoscope ; planing machines for wood and metal; the nail-making machine; the 
steam fire engine ; the hydraulic ram ; the miner's safety lamp ; machinery for mak- 
ing wooden ware ; card-clothing machinery ; improved processes of making steel. 

Among the most noteworthy scientific discoveries of the century (not previously 
mentioned) are spectrum analysis, dynamite, the use of cocaine as a local anaesthetic 
in producing insensibility to pain, the X or Roentgen Ray used in surgery (and to 
some extent in the arts) for seeing and photographing objects otherwise invisible to 
the eye, the use of antiseptics in surgical operations, the discovery and treatment of 
disease germs, the discovery of radium, the production of liquid air, cold storage, and 
wireless telegraphy. 



584 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1897- 

New Orleans and San Francisco have likewise recently adopted 
new charters with the view of securing better municipal govern- 
ment. 

The growth of cities is one of the most remarkable features of 
our history. When the first federal census was taken in 1790, 
the population of the United States was almost wholly rural and 
agricultural. There were then only six cities which had more 
than 8000 inhabitants, — Philadelphia ranking first with a popula- 
tion of 42,000, and New York next with 33,000. Then only about 
three persons in a hundred lived in cities ; now the proportion is 
about thirty in a hundred, or almost one third of the entire popu- 
lation. 

For this reason the question of good government in the United 
States has come to depend in large degree on the honest, intelli- 
gent, and efficient administration of affairs in our cities. It is 
certain that if their management is permitted to fall into the hands 
of incapable or corrupt men, the good name of the Republic 
will be put to shame and its welfare vitally imperiled. 

Within the past ten years six Southern States have adopted 
new or revised constitutions making important changes in condi- 
tions of suffrage. Mississippi (1892) requires the voter to pay a 
poll tax and to be able to read or understand any section of the 
state constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States has 
recently (1898) given a decision sustaining this clause. South 
Carolina (1895), North Carolina (1896), Louisiana (1898), Ala- 
bama (1901), and Virginia (1902) have followed the example of 
Mississippi in adopting educational or property qualifications for 
suffrage.^ The effect of these changes will be to disfranchise the 
greater part of the negroes in these states for an indefinite length 
of time, and to give the white race the j^olitical control. Several 
other Southern States are considering the question of adopting 
similar provisions. 

In 1898 South Dakota made a still more radical change. It 
voted to amend the state constitution so that the people shall 

1 See Thorpe's Short Constitutional History of the United States, 294. 



1897-] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 585 

have the right to initiate legislation on the one hand, and on the 
other to modify or repeal it by the use of the referendum.^ 

This is the first attempt to introduce a principle of legislation 
here which has been in operation in Switzerland for a number of 
years. The result will be looked for with deep interest. 

572 . Spanish possessions in the sixteenth century. At the close 
of the sixteenth century Spaniards were the only white men 
who had succeeded in planting permanent colonies on any part 
of the North American continent (§§23, 35). Furthermore, 
the same race held the West Indies, the greater part of South 
America, the Philippines, and other important groups of islands 
in the East. 

Territorially Spain was then the most powerful empire on the 
globe, and PhiHp II could boast with entire truth that he ruled 
over "possessions on which the sun never set." 

The rise of England as a " sea power " and as a successful planter 
of colonies in Virginia forced the Spanish emperor to relinquish 
some of his plans respecting America. But as late almost as the 
beginning of the nineteenth century Spain still claimed not only 
the greater part of the West Indies, Mexico, and the peninsula of 
Florida but the whole of that vast country west of the Mississippi 
now embraced by the United States. 

Less than twenty-five years later, Spain had lost all of her 
immense possessions on the mainland of North America (§§ 280, 
318, 319, map), and the only colonies she still held in the West 
Indies were Cuba and Porto Rico. 

573. Cuba and the Cuban revolution. Columbus called Cuba 
" the Pearl of the Antilles " and declared that it was '' the most 
beautiful land that eyes ever beheld." Commercially this fertile 
island has always ranked high. In a mihtary point of view its 

1 The amendment to the South Dakota constitution (1898) provides that whenever 
five per cent of the voters of the state shall petition for the enactment of a law, the 
Legislature shall at once submit the proposed statute to the people at a special elec- 
tion ; in like manner, on the petition of the same number of voters, any law which 
the Legislature may have enacted must be submitted to the popular vote, and if a 
majority then vote against it, it shall not go into effect. 



586 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1895-1897 

position between Florida and Yucatan makes it " the Key to the 
Gulf of Mexico " and to the eastern entrance to any interoceanic 
canal which may be cut through Central America. 

But this happily situated island, as large as the state of Penn- 
sylvania and almost in sight from Key West, Florida, had long 
presented a striking contrast to the free states north of it. 
Under the arbitrary rule of Spain the masses of the people en- 
joyed neither civil, political, nor religious liberty. They were 
bowed down by an enormous burden of taxation, and they were 
excluded from having any share in the government. All public 
offices were, as a rule, monopohzed by officials sent over from 
Spain. According to the last census (1887) the inhabitants of 
this island numbered somewhat over 1,600,000. They were 
divided into three classes : (i) a small number of native Span- 
iards who held nearly every position of power and trust ; (2) the 
white Creoles, who constituted the great bulk of the people; 
(3) mulattoes, free negroes, and Chinamen. 

For many years discontent had shown itself in insurrection. 
For -many years, too, the South had coveted Cuba for purposes 
of slavery extension. In 1845 the United States offered Spain 
^100,000,000 for the island, and between 1849 ^^''^ ^^57 several 
American filibustering expeditions made vain attempts to seize it. 
In 1854 the Ostend Manifesto (§ 430) boldly declared that " the 
Union can never enjoy repose nor possess rehable security as long 
as Cuba is not embraced within its boundaries." 

In 1868 a formidable rebellion broke out in Cuba, which lasted 
for ten years. President Grant condemned the barbarous manner 
in which the combatants on both sides carried on the war, and 
interceded with Spain, but without avail. At length, after terrible 
destruction of life, the Spanish government succeeded in quell- 
ing the insurrection on the surface. 

574. The war for Cuban independence. Early in 1895 a new 
and still more determined uprising began in eastern Cuba. The 
insurgents did not demand reform, but declared themselves for 
" independence or death." 



1895-1897] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 587 

The progress of the movement developed three parties : (i) the 
ultra Revolutionists, who demanded absolute separation from 
Spain ; (2) the Autonomists, who asked for "home rule" without 
separation; (3) the Spanish party in power, who opposed any 
change whatever. 

The next year (1896) the natives of the PhiHppines, animated 
by the example of Cuba, rose in revolt. Spain had therefore to 
undertake the formidable, if not hopeless, task of endeavoring 
to suppress two rebelHons at the same time, — one on one side 
of the globe, the other on the other. In the case of Cuba the 
revolutionists had more or less help from filibustering expeditions 
and funds sent by sympathizers in the United States. 

President Cleveland in his message of 1896 declared that, in- 
dependent of all humanitarian considerations, we had a direct 
pecuniary interest in Cuba "second only to that of the people 
and government of Spain." He added that if the war should 
continue it must end in the utter " ruin of the island." Presi- 
dent Cleveland concluded by saying that while the United 
States was wilHng to grant Spain any reasonable amount of time 
for pacifying Cuba, we could not permit the strife to go on 
indefinitely. 

When President McKinley entered office the Cuban war was 
raging with unabated fury. The situation was greatly aggravated 
by the frightful sufferings of the neutral Cuban peasants or non- 
combatants. On the one hand, the insurgents drove them off 
their farms and compelled them to support the revolution, or 
hanged them if they refused. On the other hand, General 
Weyler, the Spanish leader, forced all peasants within his military 
area to concentrate in the towns held by his troops. He allotted 
them certain small areas of land, within the Spanish lines, for 
cultivation. These wretched people huddled together with their 
wives and children in confined spaces could not or would not cul- 
tivate the fields allotted to them; the result was that immense 
numbers perished miserably of pestilence and starvation. General 
Lee, United States Consul at Havana, reported that in the town 



588 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1897-1898 

of Santa Clara alone, out of a population of 14,000, nearly half 
starved to death in a single year. 

Spain had sent 200,000 soldiers to Cuba and had well-nigh 
"bankrupted herself in men and money" in the vain attempt to 
suppress the rebellion. The insurgents kept up a guerrilla war, 
ravaging the country, burning buildings, and destroying sugar and 
tobacco plantations. The loss incurred by American investors 
alone was estimated at from ^30,000,000 to ^50,000,000. 

575. Demands made on Spain by the United States; reforms 
granted. The protests of the United States against the continu- 
ance of the war passed in great part unheeded. Finally, Presi- 
dent McKinley demanded that Spain should take immediate and 
effectual measures to pacify Cuba. 

The Spanish government made a conciliatory reply and in the 
autumn of 1897 recalled General Weyler and sent out General 
Blanco to grant reforms. Blanco was heartily in favor of pursu- 
ing the pohcy outhned by the Liberal party, which had come 
into power in Spain. He took active measures to relieve the 
starving peasants ; he appointed native Cubans to office and made 
a formal offer of " home rule " to the insurgents. 

The Spanish authorities had made similar pledges of reform in 
the insurrection of 1868-187 8, but had not kept their word. 
The insurgents had no faith in these new assurances. Gomez, the 
revolutionist leader, declared that he and his followers would 
accept nothing short of absolute independence. By his orders 
the Spanish officer who came as an official peace envoy to his 
camp was seized and shot as a spy. 

576. The destruction of the *' Maine"; Congress declares Cuba 
independent. Such was the condition of affairs in Cuba when an 
event occurred which suddenly changed everything. The United 
States had sent Captain Sigsbee to Havana with the battle ship 
Maine. There was nothing threatening or unfriendly in his visit 
to that port, and he remained there in peace for nearly three 
weeks; but on the night of February 15, 1898, the Maine, while 
lying in the harbor of Havana, was destroyed by an explosion and 
2 officers and 264 of her crew were killed. 



RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 589 

The United States appointed a naval Court of Inquiry to make 
an investigation. After a long and careful examination they 
reported that in their opinion " the Maine was destroyed by the 
explosion of a submarine mine." The court found no evidence 
showing whether the explosion was caused by accident or design, 
and they made no attempt to fix the responsibihty for the act on 
any person or persons. 

The Spanish government expressed their regret at " the lamen- 
table incident," disavowed all connection with it, declared they 
believed that the explosion resulted from internal causes, and urged 
that the whole question should be referred to a committee of arbi- 
tration. This suggestion the United States declined to consider. 

Later, Spain ordered General Blanco to treat with the insur- 
gents for an armistice preparatory to establishing peace, and an 
offer of nominal independence was made to the Cubans. These 
measures had no practical results with the revolutionists. 

In April President McKinley sent a special message to Congress. 
He declared that, '' in the name of humanity, in the name of civ- 
ilization, in behalf of endangered American interests, which give 
us the right and the duty to speak and act, the war in Cuba 
must stop." 

Shortly afterward Congress took up the matter. A proposition 
to recognize the Cuban Republic failed, but Congress resolved by 
joint resolution (April 20, 1898) : (i) "That the people of Cuba 
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent." ^ (2) That 
body demanded that Spain should at once withdraw all of her forces 
from the island. (3) Furthermore, Congress authorized the Presi- 
dent to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States 
to carry -the resolution into effect. (4) The United States declared 
that when the pacification of Cuba should be fully accomplished 
we would " leave the government and control of the island to its 
people." 

577. War with Spain. An ultimatum was sent to Spain which 
that power declined to receive. It was now seen that war was 
inevitable. Shortly after this action of Congress the President 
1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 128, 



590 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

issued a call for 125,000 volunteers, and later for 75,000 more; 
Captain William T. Sampson, acting Rear Admiral, had been put in 
command of a naval fleet at Key West, and Commodore W. S. Schley 
was ordered to organize a " flying squadron" at Hampton Roads. 

Congress had already placed $50,000,000 in the hands of the 
President to purchase additional war ships and carry out plans of 
national defense. 

Later, the government borrowed $200,000,000 from the people 
of the United States to prosecute the war. So eager were the 
people to purchase these new three-per-cent bonds that they sub- 
scribed for no less than seven times the amount called for. 

The act of Congress (1898) which authorized the popular loan 
also made provision for securing a war revenue. This measure 
levied special domestic and internal taxes, including stamp duties, 
on business paper and taxes on legacies and on beer.^ It was 
expected to yield an annual revenue of from $175,000,000 to 
$200,000,000. 

A few days before Congress formally declared war (April 25, 
1898) the President sent Captain Sampson with a squadron to 
blockade Havana and other important Cuban ports. 

578. The battle of Manila. Commodore George Dewey was in 
command of our Asiatic squadron at Hongkong. The President 
ordered him to proceed at once to Manila, the capital of the 
Philippines, and " capture or destroy " the Spanish fleet which 
guarded that important port. (See map facing this page.) The 
plan was to strike Spain in two vulnerable points, Cuba and the 
Philippines, at the same time. Dewey had but six war ships, of 
which only one ranked as a first-class cruiser. Manila was pro- 
tected by fortifications and the Spanish there had twice as many 
vessels as Dewey, but they were inferior in size and armament to 
the American squadron; and although the enemy showed no lack 
of courage, they were miserable gunners. 

On May i, 1898, Commodore Dewey sent a dispatch to the 
President stating that he had just fought a battle in which he had 
1 See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 465. 



1898] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 591 

destroyed every one of the enemy's squadron without losing a 
single man. 

Congress voted the thanks of the nation to the ''Hero of 
Manila," and he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral ; 
after the war he was made Admiral (1899), and Captain Sampson 
and Commodore Schley were made Rear Admirals. 

The ultimate results of Dewey's remarkable victory may prove 
a turning point in American history, deciding the question of our 
colonial policy in the far East; hence his destruction of the 
Spanish fleet may eventually be regarded as one of the decisive 
battles of the world. 

Soon after Dewey's splendid success the President sent reen- 
forcements from San Francisco under General Wesley Merritt, to 
cooperate with our squadron when it should undertake to capture 
Manila. 

579. Cervera's fleet *' bottled up." Just before the battle of 
Manila a Spanish fleet consisting of four armored cruisers and 
three torpedo-boat destroyers under Admiral Cervera left the 
Cape Verde Islands. They had started, as was supposed, for 
Cuban waters or with intent to attack the cities of our eastern 
coast. 

Commodore Schley's " flying squadron " set out to find the 
enemy. After a number of weeks' search it was discovered that 
Cervera had entered the harbor of Santiago on the southeastern 
coast of Cuba. 

A few days later. Captain Sa.mpson sailed with a number of war 
ships for that port. One of his fleet was the battle ship Oirgon, 
which had recently arrived from San Francisco, by way of the 
Straits of Magellan, after an exciting voyage of more than thir- 
teen thousand miles. 

The long, narrow, crooked channel of Santiago made entrance 
for our vessels very hazardous, and it was known that it was pro- 
tected by both land batteries and submarine mines. 

Cervera's fleet was " bottled up," but the question was whether 
he might not slip out under cover of darkness and elude our guns. 



592 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Captain Sampson resolved to "cork the bottle," and Lieu- 
tenant Hobson, at his own earnest request, was given charge of 
the dangerous experiment. With the help of seven sailors, all 
eager to rush into the jaws of death with him, he ran the coal ship 
Merrhnac into the Santiago channel and sank her part way across 
it. Hobson and his men were captured by the Spaniards, but 
were soon exchanged, and on shore he became the hero of the day. 

580. Fighting near Santiago; the "Rough Riders"; destruc- 
tion of Cervera's fleet. A few w^eeks later, General Shafter landed 
a strong force near Santiago to cooperate with Captain Sampson 











^1%^ '\^^%<^ ^ *. 




"^^ *0 ^'^^^'^^''^^^^y,. v\'»\^ *> . 




^Si^^y^^ 




J~^ 's^^ «. 


jK 


.*■ Santiago ^^^^v''''''''''*^^^^ 


k". 




i .'t^^" 







Battles near Santiago 



in the capture of that city. A skirmish brought out the fighting 
quahties of the regulars and of the "Rough Riders" who here 
fought on foot. A week later (July 1-2, 1898), after a sharp 
engagement at El Caney and at San Juan, where the " Rough 
Riders," led by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, did gallant work, 
the regulars — "the flower of the American standing army" — 
drove the Spaniards into Santiago wnth heavy loss. 

Shortly afterward Captain Sampson went to confer with General 
Shafter, leaving Commodore Schley and the other commanders of 
the fleet to keep a sharp lookout for Cervera; for the Men'i7?iac 
had only half corked the bottle. 



RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 



593 



Soon after Captain Sampson left, a shout went up from the flag- 
ship Brooklyn, " The Spaniards are coming out of the harbor ! " Both 
sides opened fire at the same time ; but the Spanish admiral, with his 
six vessels, had small chance in a contest with our fleet of six vessels, 
comprising four first-class battle ships.^ In less than three hours all 
of the enemy's fleet were blazing, helpless wrecks, and Cervera 
himself was a prisoner of war on board of one of our ships. 

Spain had another squadron at home, but she needed that to 
protect her coast; so far as we were concerned, her power on 
the ocean was practically destroyed. 

581. The end of the war; the treaty with Spain ; outbreak at 
Manila ; the treaty ratified ; annexation of Hawaii. Soon after 
this decisive defeat the Spaniards surrendered Santiago. 

A few days later, Spain asked for terms of peace, and on 
August 12, 1898, a protocol covering the prehminaries of peace 
was signed at Washington. 

The President at once ordered the suspension of hostilities. 
General Nelson A. Miles, Commander of the Army of the United 
States, was then in Porto Rico preparing for a decisive battle. 
When the order to suspend hostilities was received the island 
surrendered to our forces. Before the government dispatch could 
reach the Philippines, Rear Admiral Dewey and General Merritt 
had attacked and taken Manila. 

The Peace Commission appointed by the American and the 
Spanish governments met at Paris October i, 1 898, and the treaty ^ 
was signed on December 10. By the terms of the treaty Spain 
(i) gave up all sovereignty over Cuba ; (2) ceded to us the island 
of Porto Rico and the island of Guam in the Ladrones ; (3) finally, 
Spain ceded the Philippines to us, receiving in return $20,000,000 
for the public works which the Spanish government had erected 
on those islands. On New Year's Day, 1899, the Spanish forces 
left Havana and the American flag was hoisted over the palace 

1 The battle ship Massachusetts and Captain Sampson's flagship, the armored 
cruiser New York, were not in the battle, being absent on duty at other points. 

2 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 131. 



594 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1898-1899 

and the castle of that ancient city. This left Spain without a foot 
of ground on this side of the globe. 

The chief point of discussion in the Senate respecting the 
treaty was the article on the cession of the Philippines. A num- 
ber of senators, both Democrats and Republicans, strongly opposed 
the ratification of the treaty as it stood. They argued that we 
should either reject it entirely or amend it so that the conditions 
required from Spain should be the giving up of all control over 
the Islands, but not the actual cession of the Islands themselves 
to the United States. They believed that the annexation of the 
Philippines would prove to be a burden rather than an advantage 
to this country. They proposed that we should act as guardians 
over the Islands until the people should become able to govern 
and protect themselves. 

The majority of the Senate held the view that the annexation 
of the Philippines would be for the best interests of all concerned, 
and that Congress could govern them for an indefinite period on 
the territorial plan, as we do Alaska. 

While the subject was under discussion the natives made an 
attack on our troops at Manila. The combined forces of General 
Otis and Rear Admiral Dewey speedily drove them back with 
terrible loss. The news of the battle was at once telegraphed to 
Washington. The next day, February 6, 1899, the Senate met 
and forthwith ratified the treaty as it stood by a vote of 57 to 27. 
This act made the Philippines, Porto Rico, and Guam part of 
the territory of the United States. 

We had already annexed the Republic of Hawaii (§ 564) ; for 
after Rear Admiral Dewey's victory many people thought, with 
Captain Mahan, that we needed these Islands as a base of defense 
and of naval operations in the Pacific. The opposition declared that 
the Hawaiian people had not been fully consulted, and that '* the 
cry of 'war emergency' " did not justify our taking the Islands; 
but a joint resolution to annex passed both houses of Congress by 
a large majority,^ and was signed by the President July 7, 1898. 
1 See Macdonald's Select Statutes, No. 130, 



189&-1899] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 595 

582. The cost of the war; the question of "expansion." The 
war, so far as actual fighting was concerned, lasted a little over 
one hundred days. American history records no campaign having 
such remarkable success at such small cost of life on our side. 
The total loss in the army and navy was only 306. The war 
exhibited the wonderful efficiency of our new navy ; it showed 
what American soldiers, whether '' regulars " or volunteers, may 
always be expected to do ; it brought Union and Confederate 
veterans into service under the old flag ; ^ and it illustrated the 
noble helpfulness of the Red Cross Society and of the women of 
America. 

The total direct cost of the war was about $165,000,000. But 
the maintenance of a larger standing army to preserve order in 
our new dependencies, the building of more ships of war, and the 
outlay for pensions to disabled soldiers and sailors must greatly 
increase the national expenditures for a number of years to come.^ 

The close of the contest with Spain left us face to face with 
issues greater than the war itself. The country has yet to decide 
the momentous problem of "expansion" or of "imperialism" 
(§ 589). On that problem hangs the policy of the retention of 
the Philippines ; with it are bound up questions of markets in the 
far East, of increased military and naval forces, of taxation, of 
immigration and labor, and of the adaptation of the American 
Constitution to the government of a semi-civilized people in distant 
island possessions. 

583. The Trans-Mississippi Exposition ; cheap lands ; agricul- 
tural prosperity ; the preservation of forests ; irrigation. While 
the war with Spain was in progress the Trans-Mississippi Expo- 
sition was opened at Omaha, Nebraska (June i, 1898). Its object 
was to exhibit to the world the marvelous growth and resources 
of the vast region west of the great river of our continent. 

1 The Sixth Massachusetts Regiment received an ovation as it marched through 
Baltimore (§ 450) ; the enthusiasm showed how the wounds of the Civil War had 
healed. 

2 Professor Dewey estimates the total expenditure on the army and navy, 1898- 
1901, at §842,000,000. See Dewey's Financial History of the United States, 467. 



596 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1898- 

Spain held that country for nearly three hundred years and 
expected to hold it for all time. Through it Coronado wandered 
in his search for gold (§ 21). Fifty years ago the greater part of 
it was an unexplored wilderness. North of Texas there was not 
a single state between Missouri on the east and California on the 
Pacific; not a single mile of railway penetrated the country, and 
one of the most conspicuous features of its range of territories 
was a desolate gray patch which covered a section of many thou- 
sand square miles on the school maps and bore the forbidding 
name, Great American Desert. 

When railways began to cross the Mississippi (§522) the great 
change in that region began. The far West " is the child of the 
locomotive." Furthermore, hberal land laws hastened the settle- 
ment of that part of the country. Prior to 1862 the right of 
preemption enabled the settler to secure public land at the lowest 
government price whenever it should come into the market. 

In 1862 the United States Department of Agriculture was estab- 
lished and began its great work of usefulness to the farmer and 
the fruit raiser. The same year Congress passed the Homestead 
Bill.^ That act, which is still in force, gave every permanent settler 
1 60 acres of land practically free of charge. It drew to America a 
peaceful army of wealth-producing emigrants ; it filled great wastes 
with thrifty, hard-working, self-respecting citizens ; it enhanced the 
value of the remaining public domain, and thus enriched the Treas- 
ury of the United States. Between 1 862 and 1899 western farmers 
took up nearly 170,000,000 acres of public lands, or more than 
260,000 square miles. Forty years ago this vast area, four times 
larger than England and Wales, had no white inhabitants. To-day 
the whole of it is cultivated by those who own it and live on it.^ 

1 See United States Statutes at Large for 1862 ; Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 
11,5. 

2 Exclusive of Alaska, the United States has still about 500,000,000 acres of pub- 
lic lands to dispose of, but a considerable part of them, say one third, is unfit for 
either tillage or pasturage unless irrigation can be employed, and then only a por- 
tion can be made fertile. The time is not very far off when there will be compara- 
tively little, if any, government land for sale at a low price. 



RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 597 

A noted writer once said that " whoever could make two ears 
of corn or two blades of grass grow upon a spot of ground where 
only one grew before " would deserve better of mankind than 
those even who made its laws. 

The Trans-Mississippi Exposition showed conclusively that the 
western farmer has accomplished far more than this, for he has 
made corn grow where not an ear grew before, and in some cases 
he has made grass spring up where not a blade had ever been seen. 

The same liberal government policy which gave homesteads 
granted large tracts of lands (1862) to the states for the estab- 
lishment of agricultural colleges.^ More than sixty of these insti- 
tutions have been founded and their total endowment funds now 
exceed $10,000,000. In many cases they have been productive 
of higher education and have borne fruit in better tillage of the 
soil and in greater material results. 

The year 1 898 was one of almost unexampled agricultural pros- 
perity. The West raised enormous crops, of breadstuffs and, owing 
to the foreign demand, sold them at prices which filled the farmers' 
pockets and added largely to the wealth of the country. 

In connection with agriculture attention should be called to the 
preservation of forests. It is found that the destruction of timber in- 
volves in many cases very serious results. Streams unprotected by 
forests become torrents in the spring and dwindle or disappear in hot 
weather. Where such a process goes on for a long time on a large 
scale it renders the valleys sterile and sometimes uninhabitable. 

The total area of forests in the United States is about 480,000,- 
000 acres. Forest fires destroy on the average $20,000,000 worth 
of standing timber every year. The lumberman's ax and sawmills 
cut up enormous quantities annually, and pulp mills for the manu- 
facture of wood paper and various kinds of wooden ware make 
incessant demands on the forests. 

Since 1891 the federal government has set apart large reserva- 
tions of timber, and a number of states have passed laws not only 

1 See United States Statutes at Large for 1862 ; Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 
11,5. 



598 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i900- 

for the preservation of some portion of their woodlands but for 
tree planting as well. Intelligent and discriminating effort in this 
direction cannot fail to add to the general welfare of the countr)'. 

Furthermore, in 1902, the government set aside all moneys 
received from the sale of public lands in seventeen states and ter- 
ritories to establish an irrigation system. It is believed that in 
this way many millions of acres of arid lands can be made fertile. 

584. Savings banks ; national wealth ; use of money for the pub- 
lic good. The principle which prompts us to check the waste of 
our growing timber finds a still broader illustration in the general 
thrift of the American people. 

The first three savings banks in the United States were estab- 
lished in 18 1 6-1 81 7 in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. In 
1820 the total deposits in such institutions were only a little over 
a million of dollars. To-day the savings banks of this country 
hold more than three thousand times the amount they held in 
1820.^ This aggregate exceeds the entire sum deposited in all 
similar banks in the British Empire, France, Belgium, and Swit- 
zerland combined. 

This fund heaped up little by little by a great army of wage 
earners is an index of the general growth of prosperity. The 
estimated increase in the actual value of the real and personal 
property of the people of the United States, from 1880 to 1890, 
was not far from fifty per cent. The total " true valuation " ^ 
at the beginning of the twentieth century was about ^100,000,- 
000,000. 

This vast accumulation of wealth is to a great extent the fruit 
of economy, self-denial, well-directed labor, an(J sound habits of 
life. In many respects the material development of the country 
may be regarded as a sign of its moral vigor. We see the expres- 
sion of this power in the wise and generous use of much of the 



1 The total in 1904 exceeded $3,060,000,000. 

2 The total assessed valuation of the real and personal property of the people of 
the United States in 1890 was $25,473,173,418 ; but the estimated "true valuation" 
or fair selling price then was over $65,000,000,000. 



1900-] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 599 

capital which it creates. It makes men public-spirited. It founds 
colleges, schools, churches, missions, and charities of all kinds. 

Aside from what the states and cities of the Union are accom- 
plishing for intellectual and philanthropic objects, private citizens 
spend their own means liberally for the same purpose. Within the 
past six years they have given nearly $300,000,000 to help forward 
the cause of education, to build free public libraries and art muse- 
ums, to endow homes for friendless and orphan children, for the 
aged poor, and hospitals for the relief of the sick and suffering.^ 

585. What fifty years have done for American women. The 
year 1900 marks the semicentennial of the first national organ- 
ization of women to secure equal suffrage (§ 404). Since then 
very remarkable changes have taken place in the condition of 
the sex that constitutes nearly one half of the population of our 
country.^ 

These changes appear to be due partly to the general movement 
of society, and partly to the Woman's Rights agitation. They 
are seen : (i) in the immense broadening of the field of higher edu- 
cation; (2) in the extension of property rights/ (3) in the free 
entrance to nearly all occupations and professions ; (4) in partial 
woman suffrage i;i many states and full suffrage in four (§ 553). 

This widespread movement must necessarily exert a profound 
influence on the home life, the intellectual development, the labor 
earnings, and the political history of the American people.^ 

1 Independent of large contributions for denominational purposes and missions, 
the total amount of gifts and bequests for educational and philantliropic objects made 
by private persons in the United States in 1S99 was nearly 363,000,000, and nearly 
377,000,000 in 1903. For a long time the yearly average has been not less than 
334,000,000 ; at this rate the amount given in the lifetime of a single generation would 
be upwards of a thousand millions of dollars ! See Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia 
for 1898, Preface, and article on Gifts and Bequests in the volumes for 1899 and 
1900. 

2 According to the census of 1900, 51.1 per cent of the population of the United 
States were males, and 48.9 per cent were females. The slight excess of males, found 
generally in the western states, has been attributed to immigration. See Abstract of 
the Census for 1900, 7. 

3 The leaders of organized labor generally consider that the competition of women 
has to some extent diminished the earnings of men. On the other hand, some writers 
on political economy believe that the opening of many occupations to women has a 



600 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1900- 

/ 586. The " open door " in China ; Samoan Islands ; The Hague 
Treaty. Early in 1900 Secretary Hay, of the State Department, 
won a signal victory for American trade in China. Great Britain, 
with four of the leading continental nations and Japan, had ob- 
tained control of important ports and areas of Chinese territory. 
England was anxious that commerce should have free access to 
these privileged areas, but the other powers refused to consent. 
Secretary Hay by skillful diplomacy accomplished the great work. 
He secured a written pledge from each of the powers by which 
they bound themselves to maintain the policy of the " open door." 
This agreement gives American manufacturers and merchants the 
same right to buy and sell goods in the Chinese Empire that any 
foreign nation now possesses. 

Shortly after this negotiation was completed the Senate rat- 
ified a treaty with Great Britain and Germany. It divided 
the control of the Samoan Islands between Germany and the 
United States, so that we hold entire sovereignty over two of 
the islands. 

Following this action the Senate ratified The Hague Peace 
Conference Treaty. This treaty or convention provides that the 
United States in connection with the principal powers of Europe 
and with Japan shall maintain a perpetual Court of Arbitration 
at The Hague. The object sought is to endeavor to settle inter- 
national disputes by the pen instead of the sword (§526). No 
one expects that the Court will put an end to war, but it is hoped 
that it will help to make war less frequent.^ 

tendency to check early marriages and is favorable to the improvement of the race. 
See Giddings' Democracy and Empire, 168-176. Early in 1900 the American Feder- 
ation of Labor petitioned Congress to adopt an amendment to the Federal Consti- 
tution which should secure woman suffrage throughout the United States. The 
National Woman Suffrage Association is working to make this movement a success, 
while the Anti- Woman Suffrage Association, composed like the first organization 
mainly of women, is battling against the movement. For representative books on 
the subject see Mrs. M. A. Livermore's Woman's Work in America, advocating 
woman suffrage, and Mrs. Helen K. Johnson's Woman and the Republic, taking the 
opposite ground. 

1 The first decision made by The Hague Tribunal (1902), relating to the Mexican 
" Pious Fund," was in favor of the United States. 



1900-] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 6oi 

587. The Gold Standard Act ; the Porto Rican Tariff and Gov- 
ernment Act. In the spring of 1900 Congress passed two acts of 
great importance, — one relating to the financial policy of the 
government, the other to the Island of Porto Rico. 

The first coinage act passed more than a century ago (1792) 
made the silver dollar the unit of value (§255). After 1873 the 
" free-silver " question was hotly debated in Congress and out, 
and found expression in noteworthy acts of legislation (§§528, 
535) 555j 562). The act of 1900 makes the gold dollar "the 
standard unit of value " and requires that all other forms of money 
issued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a 
parity of value with this dollar.^ 

The Porto Rican Tariff and Government Bill roused prolonged 
and heated discussion. A strong minority in Congress urged that 
the Island should be regarded as standing on the same basis as 
that of all our national territory in the past, and that all commerce 
between the United States and Porto Rico should be absolutely 
free. 

But Congress finally decided to levy a small duty (15 per cent 
of that levied by the Dingley tariff) on merchandise " coming into 
the United States from Porto Rico and coming into Porto Rico 
from the United States." This tax was to be in force for two years, 
and the revenue so collected was to be used for the benefit of 
Porto Rico. 

The governmental provisions of the act ^ declare : First, that the 
''Citizens of Porto Rico" are "entitled to the protection of the 

1 The Gold Standard Bill was passed by a vote of 196 to 144 in the House, and 
of 42 to 28 in the Senate ; it was approved March 14, 1900. Besides making gold 
the standard of value the act provides for refunding the public debt by the issue of 
two-per-cent 30 years bonds, payable principal and interest in gold. It grants the 
power to establish national banks of small capital in places having a population of 
not more than 5000. Finally, it provides for the accomplishment of international 
bimetalUsm whenever it shall be " expedient and practicable to secure the same by 
concurrent action of the leading commercial nations of the world." See United States 
Statutes at Large for 1900 or Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia for 1900, 156. 

2 The Porto Rican Bill was amended by the Senate ; it then passed the House, 
April II, 1900, by a majority of eight votes (i6i to 153). Nine Republicans voted 
against it, and one Democrat for it. 



602 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [iocmj- 

United States." Secondly, they provide for a governor and upper 
House of Legislature to be appointed by the President, and also 
for a lower House to be elected by the people. All laws enacted 
by the Legislature must be approved by Congress. In 1901 entire 
freedom of trade was established between the LTnited States and 
Porto Rico. 

The "Citizens of Porto Rico " are not, in law, " citizens of the 
United States"^ and they are not represented by a delegate in 
Congress.^ 

588. The proposed Isthmian Canal; the census of 1900. The 
discovery of gold in California (§ 405) suggested the project of 
an Isthmian Canal by way of Nicaragua in order to secure direct 
water communication between the East and the West. At that 
time England claimed control over part of the coast of Nicaragua. 
The Clayton- Bui wer Treaty concluded between the United States 
and Great Britain (1850) provided for the construction of the 
projected canal. By the terms of that agreement the neutrality of 
the canal was guaranteed, and it was to be kept " open and free " 
forever, " for the benefit of mankind." But the true interpreta- 
tion of these provisions gave rise to more disputes than there were 
articles in the treaty. President Hayes and Secretary Blaine both 
insisted that it must be modified, and that the United States must 
hold control of such an ocean thoroughfare when completed. 

Early in 1900 the government sent a commission to explore 
and report on the best route for such an undertaking. Shortly 
afterward the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, respecting an interoceanic 
canal, was negotiated to take the. place of the unsatisfactory 
Clayton- Bulwer Treaty. The whole question respecting the pro- 
posed Canal was decided two years later (§ 594). 

1 See Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1901. 

2 The Constitution (page xiv, § 3) gives Congress absolute control over all terri- 
tory of the United States. In fully organized Territories, of the first class, the gov- 
ernment generally consists of a governor and executive council appointed by the 
President, and a House of Representatives elected by the people. All laws made by 
the Territorial Legislature are subject to the veto of Congress. The people of the 
Territory are entitled to send a delegate to Congress to represent them. This dele- 
gate sits in the House and has the right to take part in all debates but not to vote. 



19(X)-] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 603 

The census of 1900 showed that the total population of the 
United States, including Hawaii, was 76,304,799, — or a gain of 
nearly 21 per cent on the returns of 1890 (§ 556). 

589. The presidential election (1900). The three chief ques- 
tions in dispute between the Republican and the Democratic par- 
ties, as set forth in their platforms,^ were : (i) imperiahsm vs. 
expansion ; (2) trusts ; (3) the free and unlimited coinage of silver. 

The Republicans renominated William McKinley for the presi- 
dency, with Theodore Roosevelt for the vice presidency (§ 566). 
The Democrats renominated William J. Bryan, with Adlai Stevenson 
for vice president (§ 566). 

In their national platform the Democrats stated : First, that they 
regarded " imperialism" ^ as the paramount issue of the campaign. 
They declared : " We are not opposed to territorial expansion 
when it takes in desirable territory which can be erected into 
states in the Union, and whose people are willing and fit to 
become American citizens. We favor expansion by every peace- 
ful and legitimate means ; but we are unalterably opposed to the 
seizing of distant islands to be governed outside the Constitu- 
tion, and whose people can never become citizens" (§582). 

Secondly, the Democratic party pledged themselves to " an 
unceasing warfare " against " trusts " (§ 569). 

Thirdly, the Democrats reaffirmed their platform of 1896, which 
demanded '' the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at 
the present legal ratio of 1 6 to i , without waiting for the consent 
of any other nation" (§ 566). 

1 No less than ten more national platforms were adopted in 1900. They repre- 
sented the People's party (Fusionists) ; the " Middle of the Road" People's party; 
the Prohibition party; the United Christian party ; the Silver Republican party; the 
Socialist Labor party; the Social Democratic party; the National party; the Anti- 
Imperialists ; the National Democratic party (Gold Democracy). None of these 
parties secured electoral votes for their candidates. Six of them nominated candi- 
dates for the presidency and obtained a few popular votes, the highest number 
recorded being 208,555 cast for the Prohibition candidates. See McKee's National 
Conventions and Platforms, 330-370, or Stanwood's Presidency. 

2 In the political discussions of the campaign the Democrats defined " imperial- 
ism " as the policy of governing colonial possessions by force in contrast to a policy 
of expansion granting full self-government to such colonies. 



604 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [i900-i90i 

The Republicans in their national platform made no direct 
reference to " imperialism " or to expansion further than to call 
attention to the fact that we had come into possession of the 
Philippines as a result of the Spanish War and the Treaty of 
Paris (§ 581). 

First, with respect to the people of those Islands they declared, 
" The largest measure of self-government consistent with their 
welfare and our duties shall be secured to them by law." 

Secondly, with respect to trusts the platform recognized " the 
necessity and propriety of the honest cooperation of capital to 
meet new business conditions, and especially to extend our 
rapidly increasing foreign trade," but it condemned all "combi- 
nations intended to restrict business " or to " create monopolies." 

Thirdly, the Republican party declared their " steadfast oppo- 
sition to the free and unlimited coinage of silver." They further- 
more stated : " We renew our allegiance to the principle of the gold 
standard " (§ 587), *' by which the parity of all our money and the 
stability of our currency upon a gold basis has been secured." 

At the election McKinley received 292 electoral votes and 
Bryan 155. The popular vote stood 7,206,677 for McKinley 
to 6,374,397 for Bryan. 

590. The status of Cuba ; second inaugural of President McKinley ; 
the Philippines. Geographers inform us that, from their point of 
view, Cuba belongs to the United States by " the ground plan of 
the world " ; but in practical politics the question of the union 
of the two countries brought out widely divergent opinions. .It 
is certain, however, that under American control Cuba made 
remarkable progress, especially in respect to provision for educa- 
tion. At the beginning of our occupancy it is doubtful if a single 
public school existed on the island. The commissioner reports 
that early in 1901 there were over 3500 schools, with an enroll- 
ment of nearly 175,000 pupils. It was a fact full of significance 
and of promise for the future. 

In 1 90 1 the Convention of Cuban delegates, who were called 
to draft a constitution of government, framed a republic similar 



1901] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 605 

in many respects to that of the United States. Later, Congress 
authorized the President ^ to leave the government of Cuba to its 
people on certain conditions. Two of the most important of these 
.conditions were : (i) that the Cubans should never enter into a 
treaty with any foreign power which should in any way impair 
their independence; (2) that they should bind themselves to 
recognize the right of the United States to intervene, if necessary, 
for the preservation of that independence, and for " the mainte- 
nance of a government adequate for the protecdon of life, property, 
and individual liberty " on the island. After prolonged discussion 
the Cuban Convention finally voted by a majority of 16 to 11 to 
accept the conditions imposed. 

In his second inaugural address (§ 568) President McKinley 
emphasized the general prosperity of the country ; better still, 
he said : '' Sectionalism has disappeared. Division on public 
questions can no longer be traced by the war maps of 1861." 

In the Philippines (1901) the capture of Aguinaldo, the Filipino 
leader, was followed by his taking the oath of allegiance to the 
United States. He shortly afterwards issued an address to his coun- 
trymen, urging them to lay down their arms and to acknowledge 
the sovereignty of the American flag. Since that period the Phil- 
ippine Commission, appointed by the United States, reports that 
marked progress has been made in establishing local self-govern- 
ment in the Islands and in opening public schools. At present, 
while there are occasional outbreaks of guerrilla warfare among the 
Moro tribes, no resistance to the United States occurs elsewhere. 

591. The Supreme Court and our new territorial possessions; 
the Pan-American Exposition ; assassination of the President. 
Late in May, 1901, the Supreme Court of the United States 
decided the vital question of the constitudonal relations of our 
new island possessions to the nation. 

The court declared, in substance, by a majority of five to four, 
first, that the Constitution does not necessarily follow the flag, 

1 By the Piatt Amendment to the Army Appropriation Bill, 1901. See United 
States Statutes at Large for 1901, or Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia for 1901, 169. 



6o6 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1901 

and secondly, that Congress has full power to deal as it sees fit 
with all our recently acquired island territory.^ 

In May, 1901, the United States authorities hauled down the 
American flag at Havana and officially recognized the conditional 
independence (§ 590) of the Cuban Republic. 

In the spring of the same year the Pan-American Exposition 
(§553) was opened at Buffalo. In one important respect it 
differed from any international exhibition heretofore held in this 
country, since it was organized to celebrate the progress made 
by all the nations of North, South, and Central America, and to 
take steps to advance their common commercial interests. 

President McKinley attended the exposition in September, and 
there delivered his last speech. He pleaded for '• a policy of 
good will and friendly trade relations"; and declared his belief 
that if the United States would adopt such a policy leading to 
broader and freer intercourse with foreign nations it would even- 
tually benefit all concerned. 

The following day (September 6) the President gave a public 
reception at the exposition. As he was extending his hand to 
grasp that of a young man,^ the latter deliberately shot him twice 
with a revolver. The assassin openly boasted that he was an 
anarchist (§ 547) whose object was to overthrow the government. 

The President died of his wounds about a week later (Septem- 
ber 14), and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitu- 
tion (§ 548; Appendix, page xii, § 2), Vice President Roosevelt 
(§ 589) became President. 

When he entered office he declared that it would be his aim " to 
continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley." 

1 The Chief Justice, who was one of the four dissenting judges, said that the 
court considered that " Congress in dealing with the people of new territories or 
possessions is bound to respect the fundamental guarantees of life, liberty, and prop- 
erty, but assumes that Congress is not bound in these territories or possessions to 
follow the rules of taxation prescribed by the Constitution." 

2 Leon F. Czolgosz (Chol'gosh) : he was an American by birth, the son of Polish 
emigrants who had come to the United States. He was executed October 29, iqoi, 
at Auburn, New York. Compare the assassination of Lincoln by a sectionalist 
(§ 506) and that of Garfield by a partisan (§ 539). 



1901-1903] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 607 

President McKinley was buried (September 19) at his former 
home in Canton, Ohio. Throughout the United States and in 
many of the cities of Europe the occasion was solemnly kept as 
one of " mourning and prayer." Perhaps no day in our history 
as a nation has made a deeper and more abiding impression on 
the hearts of the American people. While paying their tribute 
of sorrow to the memory of the dead chief magistrate, men every- 
where silently resolved that, come what might, no anarchist, or 
no body of anarchists, should ever with murder-stained hands cast 
down the pillars of the Republic. 

592. The anthracite coal strike; wireless telegraphy; the 
American Pacific cable. In the spring of 1902 the United Mine 
Workers of the anthracite region in Pennsylvania struck for higher 
wages and shorter hours. This action closed all of the hard-coal 
mines. Late in the autumn the strike was settled by a commission 
of arbitration^ appointed by President Roosevelt, both sides in 
the controversy having agreed to accept their decision. 

The commission conceded a moderate increase of pay and made 
some reduction in the hours of labor. On the other hand, the 
coal workers bound themselves not to interfere with non-union 
men engaged in the mines. Both employers and employees were 
to refer any further disputes, which might arise during the space 
of three years, to a board of arbitrators. 

The total direct cost of the strike was estimated at nearly 
$100,000,000. To this enormous loss must be added the still 
greater loss and suffering which all classes of the community had 
to bear in consequence of the short supply of coal during the 
severe winter of 1 902-1 903. These reasons make this labor 
controversy take rank among the chief of our " historic strikes " 

(§§ 534, 547, 557)- 

The beginning of the next year marked a signal advance in the 
development of a very remarkable invention. On January 19, 

1 The commission consisted of Judge George Gray of the United States Circuit 
Court, Thomas H. Watkins, General John M. Wilson, E. W. Parker, E. E. Clark, 
Bishop John L. Spalding, and Hon. Carroll D. Wright. 



6o8 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1903 

1903, President Roosevelt made use of the Marconi wireless tele- 
graph to send a message of congratulation to King Edward of 
England. The telegram was dispatched from the station at Well- 
fleet, Cape Cod. It was the first message of the kind ever 
sent across the Atlantic. It proved the possibiUty of making 
the atmosphere a silent medium of communication between 
America and Europe. 

Less than six months later, an electric cable was completed be- 
tween San Francisco, Hawaii, and Manila, — a distance of nearly 
8000 miles, — thence connecting with a cable to Hongkong. 
This Pacific cable, hke the first ocean line laid more than forty 
years before (§ 520), was the work of our countrymen. On the 
Fourth of July, 1903, the President took part in the celebration 
of the event by sending a telegram around the globe over the 
new line. It passed from point to point, across Asia, and thence 
across Europe and the British Isles, back to the President's sum- 
mer residence at Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York. It was 
America's greeting to the nations of the world. 

593. Settlement of the Alaska Boundary question. For some 
years there had been a dispute between the United States and 
Great Britain respecting the Alaska boundary. This was satisfac- 
torily settled in the autumn of 1903 by a tribunal of arbitration 
appointed by the two countries. 

The award of that tribunal decided the principal points in favor 
of our claims. It confirmed the right of the United States to the 
entire control of an important strip of the main shore of Alaska, 
and it also conceded our jurisdiction over a valuable mining dis- 
trict. The decision was, as the President declared, " a signal proof 
of the fairness and good will with which two friendly nations can 
approach and determine issues involving national sovereignty." ^ 

594. The Isthmian Canal question decided. In 1902 Congress 
passed an act empowering the President to purchase the canal 
(§ 588) which a French company had partially constructed 
across the Isthmus of Panama. The price to be paid was not to 

J See the President's Annual Message for 1903. 



1903-1904] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 609 

exceed $40,000,000. As the canal ran through the territory of 
Colombia, a treaty for right of way was signed, but was rejected 
(1903) by that Republic. 

The same year (1903) the people of Panama declared them- 
selves independent of Colombia, and the desired right of way was 
obtained by treaty with the new Republic of Panama.^ Payment 
for the canal was made in the course of the following year. The 
completion of the great work by the United States is now assured. 
When finished it will secure to our country the absolute owner- 
ship of a water way of world-wide importance. It will open a 
new passage for the commerce of all nations on the globe; it 
will give our naval vessels and our merchant ships direct, ready, 
and undisputed access to the Pacific coast and to our island pos- 
sessions in the East ; and it will enhance our growing trade with 
China, India, Australia, and Japan. 

595. The Exposition at St. Louis ; farm products ; commercial 
exhibits; machinery; the ''manufacture of power." In the spring 
of 1904 a World's Fair was opened at St. Louis to commemorate 
the one hundredth anniversary of our acquisition of the territory of 
Louisiana (§ 280). The Exposition was on a scale commensurate 
with the importance of the event it celebrated. It was admirably cal- 
culated to show the marvelous progress made by the country be- 
tween the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains in a century's time. 

The growth of St. Louis itself is characteristic of the growth of 
that section of the West which it represents. Three generations 
ago it was nothing more than a frontier fur-trading post with 
Indians and trappers. It consisted of a stockaded fort and a few 
whitewashed log huts. To-day it is the fourth largest city in the 
United States, and the wilderness which Jefferson sent Lewis and 

1 By the terms of this treaty the Republic of Panama received $10,000,000 bonus 
and the guarantee of its independence. In return that RepubUc granted the United 
States a hundred years' lease of a strip of territory ten miles in width and extending 
across the Isthmus from ocean to ocean. The United States has power to renew 
this lease from century to century. The Panama Canal, when completed, will reduce 
the distance by sea from New York to San Francisco from about 14,000 miles to a little 
over 5000, On the canal and the treaty see Poole's Index to Reviews for 1903 
and 1904, 



6lO THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1904 

Clark to explore in 1804 (§ 283) has more than half a score of 
rapidly growing cities in the north, south, and west, and a total 
population of upwards of 14,000,000. 

Three of the most noteworthy features of the St. Louis fair 
were the farm products, the commercial exhibits, and the display 
of machinery in motion. In the first of these departments were 
shown the new corn-harvesting machines and some fruits of that 
gigantic harvest which the Secretary of Agriculture believes approx- 
imates to ^5,000,000,000.-^ Next, the department of commerce, 
covering exports and imports, represented a total foreign trade of 
$2,450,000,000 as compared with a total of less than $1,550,000,- 
000 ten years ago. Finally, the forty thousand horse power of 
moving machinery made evident to the eye the wonderful change 
which has been effected in our control of natural forces. 

When Lewis and Clark laboriously worked their way westward 
(1804) a steam engine of any kind was a curiosity. One could 
count on his fingers the whole number then in use in the United 
States and still have several fingers to spare. Men then did 
the greater part of their work by manual labor or by making the 
horse and the ox their servants. At the best they had got no 
further than compelling the wind and the water to grind their 
grain, weave their cloth, and forge their iron. 

The steam engine marked a new departure. Then, for the 
first time in history, men began to manufacture power. That 
made them independent of wind and stream, for wherever fuel 
and water could be readily obtained steam could be employed 
and physical energy could be generated and multiplied at will. 
With the invention of the electric dynamo another long step 
forward was taken,^ since that made it possible to transmit power as 

1 See Annual Report of the Agricultural Department of the United States for 
1904. In this report the cor^ crop equals ^1,000,000,000; cotton (at present prices), 
;P6oo,ooo,ooo ; wheat, ^412,000,000, — in all ^2,012,000,000. Adding all other farm 
products, the total is estimated at $4,900,000,000. 

2 The " harnessing " of Niagara Falls and of the " Soo " Canal as generators and 
transmitters of electric power may serve as an indication of what has been done on 
a large scale. 



1904] RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION 6ll 

well as manufacture and multiply it. The machinery exhibited 
in motion at St. Louis was a demonstration of the great fact, 
emphasized by the late president of the American Society of 
Civil Engineers, that we can now pi-actically produce unlimited 
power wherever it is needed ; for every steam engine and every 
dynamo can be used as a tool to make a greater one or to increase 
to any desired degree the number already existing. If we add 
to this the long-distance telephone as an auxiliary, we see how 
a single corporation, or even a single man, may direct and 
carry on great industries at points more than a thousand miles 
apart. Never before did we have so completely at our com- 
mand the natural forces which we control to-day. Never before 
could we manufacture, multiply, and transmit these forces as we 
can at present. The economic history of the United States, in its 
relation to the world, must in the future depend in large measure 
on the wise development and right use of this new power.^ 

596. The presidential election (1904). The Republican Con- 
vention nominated Theodore Roosevelt of New York as President, 
with Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana as Vice President. Their 
platform declared protection to be '' a cardinal policy of the 
Republican party." It proclaimed its intention to safeguard all 
lawful combinations of either capital or labor ; it upheld the gold 
standard (§ 587) ; it favored commercial reciprocity when not in- 
jurious to American interests ; and it declared that the Republican 
leaders had conferred upon the people of the Phihppines " the 
largest civil liberty they have ever enjoyed." 

The Democratic Convention nominated Alton B. Parker of 
New York as President, with Henry G. Davis of West Virginia 
as Vice President. The Democratic platform denounced the pro- 
tective policy of the Republicans and demanded a revision and 
gradual reduction of the tariff. It condemned "trusts " (§ 569) 
as a "menace to beneficial competition." It condemned "im- 
perialism" (§§582, 589) as unjust, and declared that the govern- 
ment had no right to make " one set of laws for those at home 

1 See Morison's The New Epoch — the Manufacture of Power, ch. i-v. 



6 12 THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY [1904-1905 

and another and a different set of laws, absolute in their charac- 
ter, for those in the colonies." Judge Parker accepted his nomi- 
nation with the understanding that he was fully committed to the 
gold standard. Seven minor parties appeared in the field. ^ 

The election resulted in the triumph of the Republicans ; the 
total electoral vote cast for Mr. Roosevelt being 336 to 140 cast 
for Judge Parker. 

597. General survey of the history of the nation ; the United 
States in the twentieth century. In growth of population, devel- 
opment of natural resources, and accumulation of wealth the 
American Republic stands at the head of the civilized nations 
of the globe. 

The economic progress of the country shows that here labor- 
saving inventions have reached the highest perfection ; here steam 
was first used for purposes of transportation (§286) and elec- 
tricity first employed to transmit intelligence (§385). 

Our progress on higher planes is not less evident. Here free 
public schools and free public libraries have been established on 
a scale never before known ; here manhood suffrage has become 
the rule; here entire religious toleration was first granted to all 
men (§ 124). 

Within the lifetime of a generation civil-service reform has 
been placed on a secure foundation (§§ 540, 565) and the prin- 
ciple of international arbitration recognized (§§526, 562, 565). 
Within the same time slavery has been abolished forever and the 
Union has had a new birth in the hearts of the whole people. 

Now we have entered the twentieth century, and fresh prob- 
lems meet us. They are the result, in great measure, of the 
progress which we have made. They challenge our best powers. 
If we solve them successfully, we shall add a chapter to American 
history which will be worthy of its past, and which cannot fail to 
instruct and encourage all who read it. 

\ 1 They were the Prohibition, People's, SociaUst, Socialist Labor, Continental 

(Labor), National Liberty (Negro), and Lincoln (Negro) parties. None of them 
obtained electoral votes, but the Socialist party claimed over 600,000 votes and 
the People's party claimed 500,000. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

In Congress, July 4, 1776. 

A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED 
STATES OF AMERICA, IN CONGRESS i ASSEMBLED. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to 
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to 
assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the 
laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of 
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the 
separation. 

^ The First Continental or General Congress met in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, Sep- 
tember 5, 1774. It consisted of forty-four delegates, representing eleven of the thirteen 
colonies. Later, eleven more delegates took their seats, and all of the colonies were repre- 
sented except Georgia, which promised to concur with " her sister colonies " in their effort to 
maintain their rights as English subjects. Peyton Randolph of Virginia was elected Presi- 
dent of the Congress. Among the distinguished men who had assembled there, were Washing- 
ton, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, John Dickinson, William Livingston, John Jay, 
John Adams, Samuel Adams, Roger Sherman, and the Rutledges of South Carolina. 

On the 14th of October, the Congress adopted a Declaration of Colonial Rights. On the 
26th, a Petition to the King, asking the redress of their wrongs, was drawn up. 

The Second Continental Congress (at which Georgia was represented) met in Philadelphia, 
in the State House (Independence Hall), May 10, 1775. A second Petition to the King was 
adopted, and Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental army, though 
Congress still denied any intention of separating from Great Britain, and earnestly expressed 
a desire for the peaceful settlement of all difficulties. 

The King's Proclamation, declaring the Colonies in rebellion, and calling for volunteers to 
force them to submit to taxation without representation, and other unjust measures, finally 
convinced the delegates to Congress of the impossibility of our continuing our allegiance to the 
English crown. 

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved " That these United Colonies 
are, and of right ought to he, free and indepe7ident states.'''' John Adams of Massachusetts 
seconded the motion. 

Later, a committee of five — Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, 
Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Living- 
ston of New York — was appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson 
drew up the paper, though a few alterations were made in it by the committee and by 
Congress. 

It was adopted on the evening of July 4, 1776, and signed by John Hancock, President of 
Congress, and Charles Thomson, Secretary. On August 2, 1776, it was signed by the mem- 
bers, representing all the thirteen states. 



ii THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : — That all men are created equal ; that 
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, 
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent 
of the governed ; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of 
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a 
new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and 
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established 
should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all experi- 
ence hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are suffer- 
able, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same 
object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, 
it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for 
their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies ; and 
such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems 
of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of 
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of 
an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a 
candid world. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing impor- 
tance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; and 
when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of 
people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legis- 
lature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and 
distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing 
them into compliance with his measure. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly 
firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be 
elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to 
the people at large for their exercise ; the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed 
to all the dangers of invasions from without, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States ; for that purpose 
obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners ; refusing to pass others to 
encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations 
of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws 
for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, 
and the amount and payment of their salaries. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE iii 

He has erected a multitude of new ofifices, and sent hither swarms of officers to 
harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent 
of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil 
power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our con- 
stitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pre- 
tended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us ; 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which 
they should commit on the inhabitants of these States ; 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; * 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent ; 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury ; 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences ; 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, estab- 
lishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to 
render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute 
rule into these colonies ; 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, 
fundamentally, the forms of our governments ; 

For suspending our ovra legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with 
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and 
waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed 
the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 
the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of 
cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally 
unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear 
arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, 
or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring 
on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule 
of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most 
humble terms ; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. 
A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is 
unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We have 
warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an 
unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances 
of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice 



IV 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kin- 
dred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connec- 
tions and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and 
consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces 
our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in 
peace friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General 
Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the recti- 
tude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of 
these colonies, solemnly publish and declare. That these united Colonies are, and 
of right ought to be, free and independent states ; that they are absolved from all 
allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and 
the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free 
and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract 
alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent 
states may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance 
on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, 
our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 



The foregoing Declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and signed by 
the following members : — 

JOHN HANCOCK. 
NEW JERSEY. 
Richard Stockton, 
John Witherspoon, 
Francis Hopkinson, 
John Hart, 
Abraham Clark. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Josiah Bartlett, 
William Whipple, 
Matthew Thornton. 



Charles Carroll, of Car- 
rollton. 



MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 

Samuel Adams, 
John Adams, 
Robert Treat Paine, 
Elbridge Gerry. 

RHODE ISLAND. 

Stephen Hopkins, 
William Ellery. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Roger Sherman, 
Samuel Huntington, 
William Williams, 
Oliver Wolcott. 

NEW YORK. 

William Floyd, 
Philip Livingston, 
Francis Lewis, 
Lewis Morris. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 

Robert Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
John Morton, 
George Clymer, 
James Smith, 
George Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
George Ross. 

DELAWARE. 
C^SAR Rodney, 
George Read, 
Thomas M'Kean. 

MARYLAND. 
Samuel Chase, 
William Paca, 
Thomas Stone, 



VIRGINIA. 
George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, 
Benjamin Harrison, 
Thomas Nelson, Jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 
William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Edward Rutledge, 
Thomas Hayward, Jr., ■ 
Thomas Lynch, Jr., 
Arthur Middleton. 

GEORGIA. 
Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 

George Walton. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE V 

Resolved, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assemblies, con- 
ventions, and committees, or councils of safety, and to the several commanding 
officers of the continental troops; that it be proclaimed in each of the United 
States, at the head of the army. 



Vi THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.^ 

We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro- 
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and estabUsh this Constitution for the United States of 
America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section i. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress 2 
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 

^ Before the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, the Thirteen Colonies were subject 
to the king of Great Britain. From July 4, 1776, the United States of America were governed 
by a Continental or General Congress, until March i, 1781, when the states adopted a con- 
stitution, called the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States." 
The Confederation had no president, no supreme court ; and consisted of a single house of 
Congress, made up of delegates elected by the legislatures of the states. Under this constitu- 
tion Congress continued to govern — in so far as a body with no practical authority can be 
said to govern — until March 4, 1789 ; but on May 14, 1787, a convention of delegates from 
all the states, except Rhode Island, met in Philadelphia " to form a more ferfect union " (see 
the opening words of the Constitution above). The whole number of delegates that attended 
was fifty-five, but only thirty-nine signed the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation 
had been made by the States only ; but as the opening words of the new compact declare, 
" We, the People,^'' made the Constitution. 

George Washington presided over the convention, and Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, 
James Madison, Rufus King, Roger Sherman, Alexander Hamilton, John Dickinson, Charles 
C. Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, J. Rutledge, and Gouvemeur Morris, were among its distin- 
guished members. 

Madison, Hamilton, Washington, and Franklin took the leading part in the great work of 
drafting the new Constitution, and after its adoption by the convention, Madison and Hamil- 
ton used their influence, with great effect, to urge its ratification by the states, especially by 
New York (see their papers in the Federalist). 

After a stormy session of nearly four months, during which the convention several times 
threatened to break up in hopeless dispute, the Constitution was at last adopted. (For the 
compromises on which it rested, see page 192, note 3.) 

While the members of the convention were signing the Constitution (for its leading pro- 
visions, see page 194), the venerable Dr. Franklin, then aged eighty-one, rose and said : " I 
have often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its 
issue, looked at the sun [painted on the wall back of the president's chair], without being able 
to tell whether it was rising or setting ; but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that 
it is a rising, and not a setting sun." 

The Constitution was then submitted to the thirteen states. In 1788 eleven had ratified it 
(Rhode Island and North Carolina declining then, though they gave their assent before the close 
of 1790), and on March 4, 1789, the new Constitution went into operation, although, owing 
to delays, Washington was not inaugurated as the first President until April 30 of tliat year. 

2 Congress assembles on the first Monday in December ; the session closes, by custom, at 
midnight on the 3d of the following March. Each Congress exists two years. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES vii 

Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen 
every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State 
shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of 
the State Legislature. 

No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age of 
twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who 
shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be 
chosen. 

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States 
which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers,! 
which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, includ- 
ing those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, 
three-fifths of all other persons.2 The actual enumeration shall be made within 
three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within 
every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. 
The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but 
each State shall have at least one representative : and until such enumeration shall 
be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three ; Massa- 
chusetts, eight ; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, one ; Connecticut, five ; 
New York, six ; New Jersey, four ; Pennsylvania, eight ; Delaware, one ; Maryland, 
six; Virginia, ten; North Carolina, five; South Carolina, five; and Georgia, three. 

When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive 
authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker 3 and other officers; 
and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators 
from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years ; and each senator 
shall have one vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, 
they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the 
senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year ; of 
the second class, at the expiration of the fourth year; of the third class, at the 
expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year ; and 
if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legis- 
lature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until 
the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty 
years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

The Vice-President of the United States shall be president of the Senate, but 
shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

^ At present (census of 1890) one representative is sent to Congress for every 173,901 
persons ; this will hold good until 1903. 

2 " Persons " meaning slaves. This has been amended (by Amendments XI XL and XIV.), 
and is no longer in force. 

3 The Speaker presides. Other ofiicers are the clerk, sergeant-at-arms, door-keeper, etc. 



X 



viii THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Senate shall choose their other officers,! and also a president pro tempore^ 
in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments: When sitting 
for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the 
United States is tried, the Chief-Justice shall preside: and no person shall be con- 
victed without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal 
from office, and disquaUfication to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or 
profit under the United States ; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable 
and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. 

Section 4. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators 
and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but 
the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to 
the places of choosing senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be 
on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. 

Section 5. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifi- 
cations of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to 
do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be 
authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under 
such penalties, as each house may provide. 

Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for 
disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 

Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time pub- 
lish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy, and 
the yeas and nays of the members of either house on any question shall, at the 
desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 

Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the 
other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which 
the two houses shall be sitting. 

Section 6. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation 2 for 
their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United 
States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be 
privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective 
houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate 
in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be 
appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall 
have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during 
such time ; and no person holding any office under the United States, shall be a 
member of either house during his continuance in office. 



^ The chief of these are the secretary, sergeant-at-arms, door-keeper, etc. 
2 $5000 a year, with twenty cents for every mile necessarily travelled in coming to and 
returning from the Capital. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES ix 

Section 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Repre- 
sentatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, 
shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States ; 
if he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to 
that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large 
on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration, two- 
thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the 
objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if 
approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases 
the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the 
persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house 
respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days 
(Sunday excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a 
law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjourn- 
ment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) 
shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before the same shall 
take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed 
by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules 
and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and 
general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be 
imiform throughout the United States ; 

To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and 
with the Indian tribes ; 

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject 
of bankruptcies throughout the United States ; 

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the 
standard of weights and measures; 

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin 
of the United States ; 

To establish post-offices and post-roads ; 

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited 
times, to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and 
discoveries ; 

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; 

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and 
offences against the law of nations ; 

To declare war, gTant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning 
captures on land and water ; 

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be 
for a longer term than two years ; 



X THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

To provide and maintain a navy ; 

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces ; 

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the lav^^s of the Union, suppress 
insurrections and repel invasions ; 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing 
such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving 
to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of 
training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district (not 
exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the accept- 
ance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to 
exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the Legislature 
of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, 
dockyards, and other needful buildings ; — And 

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execu- 
tion the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the 
government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.i 

Section 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States 
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress 
prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be 
imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.2 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when 
in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 

No bill of attainder or ex-post-facto law shall be passed. 

No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census 
or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the 
ports of one State over those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one 
State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 

No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations 
made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures 
of all public money shall be published from time to time. 

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States : And no person hold- 
ing any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, 
accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any 
king, prince, or foreign state. 

Section 10. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; 
grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any- 
thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attain- 
der, ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title 
of nobility. 

No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any impost or duties on 
imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its 

^ This is the so-called " elastic clause " of the Constitution. 

- " Person " meaning slave ; referring to the foreign slave-trade, abolished in i8o§. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 



XI 



inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and impost, laid by any State on 
imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; and all 
such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 

No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep 
troops, or ships-of-war, in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with 
another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, 
or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II. 

Section i. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United 
States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, 
together with the Vice-President,' chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows: 

Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, 
a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to 
which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no senator or representative, 
or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be 
appointed an elector. 

[The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two 
persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with 
themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the num- 
ber of votes for each ; which list they shall sign and certify and transmit sealed to 
the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the president of the 
Senate. The president of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House 
of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The 
person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number 
be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if there be more 
than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the 
House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for Presi- 
dent ; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the 
said house shall, in like manner, choose the President. But in choosing the Presi- 
dent, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having 
one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from 
two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. 
In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest num- 
ber of votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain 
two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the 
Vice-President.i] 

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on 
which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the 
United States.2 



^ This paragraph in brackets has been set aside by the XII. Amendment. 

- The electors are chosen on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, next 
before the expiration of a presidential term. They vote (by Act of Congress of Feb. 3, 1887) 
on the second Monday in January following, for President and Vice-President. The votes 
are counted, and declared in Congress on the second Wednesday of the next February. 



xii THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the 
time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President ; 
neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to 
the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years resident within the United 
States. 

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, 
or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall 
devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case 
of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice-Presi- 
dent, declaring what officer shall then act as President ; and such officer shall act 
accordingly until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation! 
which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he 
shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other 
emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or 
affirmation : — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the 
office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, 
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." 

Section 2. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of 
the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual 
service of the United States ; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal 
officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties 
of their respective offices ; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons 
for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make 
treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur •, and he shall nominate, 
and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint ambassadors, 
other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other 
officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided 
for, and which shall be established by law : but the Congress may by law vest the 
appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, 
in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during 
the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of 
their next session. 

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information 2 of the 
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he 
shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene 
both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them with 
respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall 



1 The President now receives $50,000 a year ; the Vice-President, $8000. Previous to 
1873 the President received but $25,000 a year. 

- The Presidents, beginning with Jefferson, have done this by messages sent to Congress. 
Washington and Adams read speeches or messages to that body. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xiii 

think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall 
take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers 
of the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United 
States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, 
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

Section i. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one 
Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time 
ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall 
hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their 
services a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in 
office. 

Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, 
arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under their authority; — to all cases affecting ambassadors, 
other public ministers, and consuls ; — to all cases of admiralty and maritime juris- 
diction ; — to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; — to con- 
troversies between two or more States ; — between a State and citizens of another 
State ; i — between citizens of different States ; — between citizens of the same State 
claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens 
thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. 

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those 
in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. 
In all other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate juris- 
diction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations 
as the Congress shall make. 

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and 
such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed ; 
but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places 
as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Section 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war 
against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. 

No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses 
to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no 
attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the 
life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Section i. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, 
records, and judicial proceedings of every other State And the Congress may by 



But compare Amendment XI. 



xiv THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings 
shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Section 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several States. 

A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall 
flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive 
authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the 
State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

No person i held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping 
into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due. 

Section 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; but 
no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; 
nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, 
without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the 
Congress. 

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and 
regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United 
States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any 
claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a 
republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, 
and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature 
cannot be convened) against domestic violence, 

ARTICLE V. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall 
propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the Legisla- 
tures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing 
amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as 
part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the 
several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other 
mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress ; provided that no amend- 
ment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight 
shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the 
first article ; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal 
suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VL 

All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this 
Constitution, shall be as vahd against the United States under this Constitution, as 
under the confederation. 

1 " Person " here means slave. This was the original Fugitive Slave Law. It now his no 
force, since, by Amendment XIIL to the Constitution, slavery is prohibited. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES XV 

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in 
pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the 
authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the 
judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws 
of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the 
several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United 
States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support 
this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to 
any office or public trust under the United States. 



ARTICLE VIL 

The ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the estab- 
lishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. 

Done in conventions, by the unanimous consent of the States present, the 
seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the 
United States of America the twelfth. 

In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
President, a7id Deputy from Virginia. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
John Langdon, 
Nicholas Oilman. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 
Nathaniel Gorhaim, 
RuFus King. 

CONNECTICUT. 

William Samuel Johnson, 
Roger Sherman. 

NEW YORK. 
Alexander Hamilton. 

NEW JERSEY. 
William Livingston, 
David Brearley, 
William Paterson, 
Jonathan Dayton. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 
Benjamin Franklin, 
Thomas Mifflin, 
Robert Morris, 
George Clymer, 
Thomas Fitzsimons, 
Jared Ingersoll, 
James Wilson, 
Gouverneur Morris. 

DELAWARE. 
George Read, 
Gunning Bedford, Jr., 
John Dickinson, 
Richard Bassett, 
Jacob Broom. 

MARYLAND. 
James M'Henry, 
Daniel of St. Tho.mas 

Jenifer, 
Daniel Carroll. 



VIRGINIA. 
John Blair, 
James Madison, Jr. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

William Blount, 
Richard Dobbs Spaight, 
Hugh Williamson. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

John Rutledge, 
Charles C. Pinckney, 
Charles Pinckney, 
Pierce Butler. 



GEORGIA. 

William Few, 
Abraham Baldwin. 



Attest: 



WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. 



xvi THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



AMENDMENTS 

To THE Constitution of the United States, ratified according 

TO THE Provisions of the Fifth Article of 

the Foregoing Constitution. 

Article I.i — Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition 
the government for redress of grievances. 

Article II. — A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free 
State the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

Article III. — No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, 
without the consent of the owner ; nor in time of war but in a manner to be pre- 
scribed by law. 

Article IV. — The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects, against imreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, 
and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affir- 
mation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or 
things to be seized. 

Article V. — No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise 
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in 
time of war and public danger ; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence 
to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal 
case to be a witness against himself, nor to be deprived of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, 
without just compensation. 

Article VI. — In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to 
a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the 
crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascer- 
tained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be 
confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining 
witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. 

Article VII. — In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall 
exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried 
by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States than 
according to the rules of common law. 

Article VIII. — Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, 
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 



1 The first ten amendments were offered in 1789, and adopted before the close of 1791. 
They were largely the work of James Madison . They were adopted, says Judge Story, in order 
to "more efficiently guard certain rights already provided for in the Constitution, or to pro- 
hibit certain exercises of authority supposed to be dangerous to the public interests." 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xvii 

Article IX. — The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not 
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

Article X. — The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitu- 
tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to 
the people. 

Article XI.l — The judicial power of the United States shall not be con- 
strued to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against any 
of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any 
foreign state. 

Article XII.2 — The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote 
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shall name in their ballots the 
person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice- 
President ; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, 
and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, 
which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the govern- 
ment of the United States, directed to the president of the Senate; — the president 
of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted ; — the person having 
the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number 
be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have 
such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding 
three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall 
choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the 
votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; 
a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds 
of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if 
the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of 
choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then 
the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other con- 
stitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of 
votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a majority, then 
from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-Presi- 
dent ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of 
senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But 
no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that 
of Vice-President of the United States. 

Article XHI.s — Section i. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except 
as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall 
exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

* Proposed in 1794; adopted 1798. A number of states have, at different times, taken 
advantage of this amendment to repudiate their debts. * Adopted 1804. 

3 This confirmed the Proclamation of Emancipation ; it was adopted in 1865. 



xviii THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 

Article XIV.l — Section i. All persons born or naturalized in the United 
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and 
of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which 
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall 
any State deprive any person of life, Hberty, or property, without due process of 
law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several States accord- 
ing to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each 
State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for 
the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, repre- 
sentatives in Congress, the executive or judicial officers of a State, or the members 
of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, 
being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of represen- 
tation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male 
citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in 
such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector 
of President or Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United 
States, or under any State, -who having previously taken an oath as a member of 
Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legis- 
lature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution 
of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the 
same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote 
of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by 
law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in 
suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the 
United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in 
aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss 
or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be 
held illegal and void. 

Section 5. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the 
provisions of this article. 

Article XV.2 — Section i. The rights of citizens of the United States to vote 
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2, Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

1 Adopted 1868. The object of sections i and 2 was to make the freedmen (negroes), 
emancipated during the Civil War, citizens of the United States. 

2 Adopted 1870, Its object was to give the freedmen (negroes) the right to vote. 



APPENDIX 



XIX 









(S 

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POPULA- 
TION IN 
1790. 

50,996 

434,373 
184,139 

82,546 
238,431 

378,717 

319,728 
249,073 

141,899 

748,308 
mcludi'g 
W. Va. 


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Edmund Randolph. 
Timothy Pickering. 
Timothy IMckering. 
John Marshall. 
James Madison. 

Robert Smith. 
James Monroe. 

JohnQuincy Adams. 


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Edward Livingston. 
Louis McLane. 
John Forsyth. 
John Forsyth, 
iJaniel Webster. 
Hugh S. Legard. 
Abel P. Upshur. 
John C. Calhoun. 
James Buchanan. 
John M. Clayton. 
Daniel Webster. 
Edward Everett. 
William L. Marcy. 
Lewis Cass. 
Teremiah S. Black. 


William H. Seward. 

William H. Seward. 
ElihuB.Washbume. 
Hamilton Fish. 
William M. Evarts. 
James G. Blaine. 
F. T. Frelinghuysen. 
Thomas F. Bayard. 
James G. Blaine. 
Walter Q.Gresham. 
John Sherman. 
John Hay. 









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A SHORT LIST OF 

BOOKS ON AMERICAN HISTORY 



Bibliogj-aphy 

Channing and Hart's Guide to the Study of 
American History (1492-1865). 

Adams' Manual of Historical Literature. 

References in Winsor's Narrative and Criti- 
cal History of America, 8 vols. 

Foster's References to United States His- 
tory. 

Larned's Literature of American History. 

Historical Geography, Te^'ritorial 

Expansion^ Physiography, and 

Maps 

Hart's Epoch Maps of the United States 

(no text). 
Scribner's Statistical Atlas of the United 

States (1880). 
MacCoun's Historical Geography of the 

United States (revised edition). 
Gannett's Boundaries of the States (no 

maps). 
Shaler's United States, 2 vols. 
Whitney's United States. 
Semple's American History and its Geo- 
graphic Conditions. 
Hitchcock's Louisiana Purchase. 
Austin's Steps in the Expansion of our 

Territory. 
Hulbert's Historic Highways (Roads and 

Waterways), 13 vols. 

Works of Reference 

Macdonald's Select Charters of American 
History (1606-1775). 

Macdonald's Select Documents of United 
States History (1776-1861). 

Macdonald's Select Statutes of United 
States History (1861-1898). 

Lalor's Cyclopjedia of United States His- 
tory, 3 vols. 

Larned's History for Ready Reference, 6 
vols. 

Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States 
History, 10 vols. 

Jameson's Dictionary of United States 
History. 

Richardson's Messages, etc., of the Presi- 
dents (1789-igoi), 10 vols. 

Rand's Economic History since 1763. 



Harper's Book of Facts. 

Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia (1876- 
1902). 

Poole's Index to Reviews. 

Index to Congressional Documents. 

The American Historical Review. 

The Magazine of American History. 

The Magazine of Western History. 

Harper's First Century of the Republic. 

The North American Review for 1876 (First 
Century of the Republic). 

The Johns Hopkins University Studies. 

The Political Science Quarterly. 

The Harvard Historical Studies. 

The Columbia University Studies. 

The Yale Review. 

American State Papers, 50 vols. 

The Papers of the American Historical 
Association. 

The Papers of the American Antiquarian 
Society. 

The American Academy of Political and 
Social Science. 

Debates in Parliament. 

Parliamentary History. 

Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biog- 
raphy, 6 vols. 

The National Cyclopaedia of American Bi- 
ography, 12 vols. 

The Collections of State Historical Socie- 
ties. 

Colonial Records. 

Sparks' American Biography, 25 vols. 

Morse's American Statesman, 25 vols, (in 
progress). 

Scudder's American Commonwealths, 13 
vols, (in progress). 

Elson's Side Lights on American History, 
2 vols. 

McMaster's With the Fathers. 

Bishop's American Manufactures, 2 vols. 

Boone's Education in the United States. 

Dexter's History of Education in the United 
States. 

Richardson's American Literature, 2 vols. 

Wright's Industrial Evolution of the United 
States. 

Morison's New Epoch — the Manufacture 
of Power. 

Bryce's American Commonwealth, 2 vols, 
(revised edition). 



LIST OF BOOKS ON AMERICAN HISTORY xxv 



The Tribune Almanac. 

The World Almanac. 

Niles' Register (1811-1849), 7^ vols. 

The Statesman's Year-Book. 

Constitutional and Political History 
and Diplomacy 

Kasson's Evolution of the Constitution of 

the United States. 
Thorpe's Short Constitutional History of 

the United States. 
Thorpe's Constitutional History of the 

American People, 2 vols. 
Von Hoist's Constitutional History of the 

United States (to 1861), 9 vols. 
Bryce's American Commonwealth, 2 vols. 

(revised edition). 
Elliot's Debates in the Constitutional Con- 
vention, 3 vols. 
Foster's Commentaries on the Constitution, 

2 vols. 
Landon's Constitutional History. 
Poore's State Charters and Constitutions, 

2 vols. 
Benton's Abridgment of Congressional 

Debates (1789-1850), 16 vols. 
Wheeler's History of Congress, 2 vols. 
The Congressional Globe. 
The Congressional Record. 
Moore's History of Congress. 
Hazard's State Papers (1492-1767), 2 vols. 
Pickering's (English) Statutes at Large, 

109 vols. 
Force's American Archives (1774-1783), 9 

vols. 
The Federalist. 
Williams' Statesman's Manual (1789-1847), 

2 vols. 

Carson's History of the United States 

Supreme Court. 
Boutwell's The Constitution at the End of 

the Century. (U. S. Supreme Court 

decisions.) 
United States Statutes (and Treaties) at 

Large, 28 vols, (in progress). 
Taussig's Tariff History. 
Mason's History of the Veto Power. 
Mead's Old South Leaflets, 75 nos. (in 

progress). 
Hart and Channing's American Historj^ 

Leaflets, 24 nos. (in progress). 
Cooper's American Politics. 
Wilson's The State. 
Scott's Constitutional Liberty. 
Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, 

3 vols. 

Smith's Political History of Slavery, 2 vols. 



Curtis' History of the Republican Party, 
2 vols. 

Smith's Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the 
Northwest. 

Macdonald's Charters of American History 
(1605-1775). 

Macdonald's Select Documents of United 
States History (1776-1861). 

Macdonald's Select Statutes of United 
States History (1861-1898). 

Macy's PoUtical Parties (1846-1861). 

Mc Master's Acquisition of Rights. 

Stanwood's The Presidency. 

McKee's National Conventions and Plat- 
forms. 

Johnston's American Politics. 

Woodburn's Political Parties. 

Merriam's American Political Theories. 

Ford's Political History of the United 
States. 

Gordy's Political History of the United 
States (1787-1828), 2 vols. 

ISIcPherson's Political History of the Re- 
bellion. 

McPherson's Political History of Recon- 
struction. 

McPherson's Handbook of Politics (from 
1870), 13 double vols. 

The Collected Works* of Franklin, Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Jay, Rufus 
King, John Adams, Madison, Morris, 
Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Lincoln, Sew- 
ard, and Sumner. 

Memoirs of J.Q.Adams (1795-1848), 12 vols. 

Ingersoll's Recollections (1792-1803), 2 vols. 

Benton's Thirty Years in the Senate (1820- 
1850), 2 vols. 

Wise's Seven Decades (1790-1862). 

Blaine's Twenty Years in Congress (1861- 
1881), 2 vols. 

Sargent's Public Men and Events (1817- 
1895), 2 vols. 

Julian's Political Recollections (1840-1872). 

McCuUoch's Men and Measures of Half a 
Century (1833-1883). 

Cox's Three Decades (1855-1885). 

Chittenden's Personal Reminiscences (1840- 
1890). 

Sherman's Recollections (1855-1895), 2 vols. 

Thompson's Recollections of Sixteen Presi- 
dents (1789-1865), 2 vols. 

McClure's Recollections. 

Hoar's Autobiography, 2 vols. 

Snow's American Diplomacy (i 783-1893). 

Schuyler's American Diplomacy. 

Foster's Century of American Diplomacy 
(1776-1876). 

Hart s Foreign Policy of the United States. 



XXVI 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Financial History 

Dewey's Financial Histoiy of the United 

States. 
White's Money and Banking. 
Sumner's American Currency. 
Bolles' Financial History of the United 

States, 2 vols. 

Histories of the United States in 
General 

Hart's History of the American Nation, 

(1492- ), 28 vols, (in progress). 
Lee's History of North America (1492- ), 

20 vols, (in progress). 
Chancellor and Hewes' United States (1607- 

1904), 10 vols, (in progress). 
Sparks' United States (1492-1904), 2 vols. 
Elson's United States (1492-1904). 
Avery's United States (1492-1904), 12 vols. 

(in progress). 
Andrews' United States (1492-1902), 5 vols. 
Wilson's History of the American People 

(1492-1900), 5 vols. 
Scribner's United States (Bryant & Gay 

revised) (1492-1896), 5 vols. 
Hart's Epochs of American History (1492- 

1889), 3 vols. 
Scribner's American History Series (1492- 

1889), 7 vols. 
Higginson's Larger History of the United 

States (1492-1837). 
Goldwin Smith's United States (1492-1S71). 
Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of 

America (iooo-i8t;o), 8 vols. 
Schouler's United States (1783-1865), 6 vols. 
Bancroft's United States (1492-1789), 6 vols. 
H. H. Bancroft's Pacific States, 34 vols. 
Hildreth's United States (1492-1821), 6 vols. 
Johnston's United States (reprinted with 

additions from the Encyclopedia Britan- 

nica (1492-1889). 
Tucker's United States (1607-1841), 3 vols. 
McMaster's United States (1784-1861), 5 

vols, (in progress). 
Adams' United States (1801-1817), 9 vols. 
Moireau's Des Etats-Unis (1492-1800), 2 

vols. 
Rhodes' United States (1850-1876), 6 vols. 
Hart's American History told by Contem- 
poraries (1492-1900), 4 vols. 



I. Period of Discovery (1492- 
1521) 

§Major's Select Letters of Columbus. 
§Hakluyt's Pivers Voyages. 

^ Contemporaneous or Early History. 



Winsor's Columbus. 

Markham's Columbus. 

Harrisse's Discovery of America. 

Fiske's Discovery of North America, 2 

vols. 
Winsor's America, vols. I-IIL 

II. Period of Exploration and 
Spanish Colonization of 

America (i 509-1 587) 

Irving's Companions of Columbus, 2 vols. 

H. H. Bancroft's Pacific States, 34 vols. 
§De Soto's Conquest of Florida (Hakluyt). 

Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New 
World. 

Cooke's Virginia. 
§Hakluyt's Voyages (Goldsmid), vol. XIII, 

pp. 169-276 (reasons for colonization). 
§Hart's Contemporaneous History, vol. I. 

Winsor's America, vols. II-III. 

Edward's Sir Walter Raleigh. 
On tfie Indians : 

Ellis' The Red Man and the White. 

Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, 6 vols. 

Morgan's League of the Iroquois. 

Colden's Five Nations. 

Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac (chap. 
I). 

III. Period of Permanent Eng- 
lish AND French Settle- 
ments (i 607-1 763) 

Scribner's United States, 5 vols. 
Winsor's America, 8 vols. 
Doyle's The English in America, 3 vols. 
Osgood's American Colonies in the 17th 

Century, 2 vols. 
Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New 

Worid. 
Eggleston's The Beginners of a Nation. 
Eggleston's The Transit of Civilization. 
Eggleston's Articles in the Century, vols. 

III-VIII. 
Earle's Home Life in Colonial Days. 
Thwaite's Colonies. 
Fisher's Colonial Period. 
Lodge's English Colonies. 
Parkman's Frontenac. 
Parkman's Old Regime in Canada. 
Parkman's Jesuits in North America. 
Parkman's Half Century of Conflict, 2 vols. 
Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, 2 vols. 
Winsor's Mississippi Basin. 



LIST OF BOOKS ON AMERICAN HISTORY xxvii 



§Force's North American Colonies, 4 vols. 

Seeley's Expansion of England. 

Lecky's England in the i8th Century, 8 
vols. 

Chalmer's Annals of the Colonies. 

Chalmer's Revolt of the Colonies, 2 vols. 

Goldwin Smith's American Colonies. 
§Captain John Smith's Works (Arber's 

edition). 
§ Brown's Genesis of the United States 

(1607-1616), 2 vols. 
§Beverly's Virginia (1584-1720). 
§Stith's Virginia (1607-1747). 
§Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. 
§Neiirs Virginia Company. 
§Neill's Virginia Vetusta. 
§Neill's Virginia Carolorum. 
§Hemng's Statutes (1619-1792), 13 vols. 

Bruce's Economic History of Virginia, 2 
vols. 

Cooke's Virginia. 

The Virginia Magazine of History, etc. (in 
progress). 
§Brodhead's New York (1664-1691), 2 vols. 

Roberts' New York, 2 vols. 

Wilson's City of New York, 4 vols. 

Lamb's City of New York, 2 vols. 

Palfrey's New England, 5 vols. 
§Winthrop's New England, 2 vols. 

Fiske's Beginnings of New England. 

Weeden's Economic History of New Eng- 
land, 2 vols. 
§ Bradford's History of Plymouth. 
§ Arber's Story of the Pilgrims. 
§Young"s Chronicle of the Pilgrims. 

Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic. 

Barry's Massachusetts, 3 vols. 
§ Lowell Lectures (1869) on Early Massa- 
chusetts. 
§Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts Bay. 

Ellis' Puritan Age in Massachusetts. 
§Hutchinson's Massachusetts, 3 vols. 

Oliver's Puritan Commonwealth. 

Thornton's Reply to Oliver. 

Adams' Emancipation of Massachusetts. 

Adams' Three Episodes in the History of 
Massachusetts, 2 vols. 
§Mather's Magnalia. 
^Sewall's Diaiy (1674-1729), 3 vols. 

Winsor's Memorial History of Boston, 4 
vols. 

Arnold's Rhode Island, 2 vols. 

Greene's Rhode Island. 

Trumbull's Connecticut, 2 vols. 

Johnston's Connecticut. 

Sanborn's New Hampshire. 



Belknap's New Hampshire, 2 vols. 

Browne's Maryland. 

Scharf's Maryland, 3 vols. 
§Proud's Pennsylvania (1681-1742), 2 vols. 

Fisher's Making of Pennsylvania. 

Fisher's Colony and Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania. 

Scharf and Westcott's Philadelphia. 

The Pennsylvania Magazine (in progress). 

Scharf's Delaware, 2 vols. 

Roper's North Carolina. 

Williamson's North Carolina. 

Moore's North Carolina, 2 vols. 

McCrady's South Cai-olina, 2 vols. 

Simm's South Carolina. 

Raum's New Jersey, 2 vols. 

Jones' Georgia, 2 vols. 

Baird's Huguenot Emigration to America. 

Roosevelt's Winning of the West, 3 vols. 

Hinsdale's Old Northwest. 

Tyler's Colonial Literature. 

Biography. See Sparks' American Biogra- 
phy for lives of Nathaniel Bacon, Daniel 
Boone, Lord Baltimore (Calvert), Jona- 
than Edwards, John Eliot, Patrick 
Henry, Anne Hutchinson, John I-edyard, 
Cotton Mather, Governor Oglethorpe, 
James Otis, Sir W. Phips, William 
Penn, Count Rumford (Benj. Thomp- 
son), Captain John Smith, Roger Wil- 
liams, Governor Winthrop ; Bigelow's 
Benjamin Franklin, 3 vols., Montgom- 
ery's Franklin (Ginn & Company). 

IV. The Revolution and the 
Constitution (i 763-1 789) 

Winsor's America, vol. VI. 

Scribner's United States. 

Frothingham's Rise of the Republic. 

Lecky's England (iSth century), 8 vols. 

Bancroft's United States, 6 vols. 

Hildreth's United States, vols. I-III. 

Hart's Formation of the Union (1750-1829). 

Sloane's French War and Revolution. 
§Hart's American History told by Contem- 
poraries, vol. II. 

Greene's American Revolution. 

Ludlow's War of Independence. 

Winsor's Handbook of the Revolution. 

Trevelyan's American Revolution. 4 vols. 

Fisher's The True Revolution. 

Rand's Economic History since 1763 (re- 
vised edition). 
§Stedman's American War (British account). 
§Almon's " Prior Documents" (1764-17757, 



Contemporaneous or Early History. 



xxviii THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



§Almon"s Remembrancer (1775- 1784), 17 
vols. 

Hosmer's Life of Governor Hutchinson. 
§Moore's Diary of the Revolution, 2 vols. 
§Thacher's Military Journal. 
§Baroness Riedesel's Memoirs. 
§Galloway's Rise of the Rebellion (Tory). 

Sabine's Loyalists. 

Carrington's Battles of the Revolution. 

Abbott's Revolutionary Times. 

Scudder's America 100 Years Ago. 

Jefferson's Anas (in his Works), vol. IX. 

Gouverneur Morris' Diary (1775-1815), 2 
vols. 

Tyler's Literature of the Revolution, 2 vols. 

Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, 2 
vols. 

Von Hoist's Constitutional History, vol. L 

McMaster's United States, vol. L 

Landon's Constitutional History of the 
United States. 

Kasson's Evolution of the Constitution of 
the United States. 
§The Federalist. 

§Elliot's Debates on the Constitution, 3 
vols. 

Wilson's The State. 

Foster's Commentaries on the Constitu- 
tion, 2 vols. 

Curtis' History of the Constitution, 2 
vols. 

Fiske's Critical Period in United States 
History. 

Biography. Parker's Historic Americans, 
Bigelow's Franklin, 3 vols., Hosmer's 
Samuel Adams, ^ Morse's John Adams, ^ 
Greene's General Greene, 2 vols.. Lodge's 
Washington, 2 vols.,i Fiske's Irving's 
Washington and his Country (Ginn & 
Company), Sparks' American Biography, 
Lodee's Hamilton, ^ Gay's Madison,^ 
Roosevelt's Gouverneur Morris.'^ 
1 In Morse's American Statesmen Series. 

V. The Union — National De- 
velopment (1789-1861) 

Schouler's United States, 5 vols. 
Scribner's United States, 5 vols. 
Hildreth's United States, vols. IV-VL 
Wilson's Division and Reunion (1829- 

1889). 
Bryce's American Commonwealth, 2 vols. 

(revised edition). 
Walker's The Making of the Nation. 



Winsor's America, vol. VII. 

McMaster's United States (1784-1861), 5 

vols, (in progress). 
Tucker's United States (1607-1841), 4 

vols. 
Adams' United States (1801-1817), 9 vols. 
H. H. Bancroft's Pacific States, 34 vols. 
Rhodes' United States (1850-1866), 5 vols. 
Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812. 
Lossing's Field Book of the War of 1812. 
Cooper's Naval History. 
Maclay's History of the Navy, 2 vols. 
Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, 

3 vols. 

Page's The Old South. 

Ingle's Southern Side Lights. 

Ripley's War with Mexico. 

Jay's Mexican War. 

Richardson's American Literature, 2 vols. 

Stedman and Hutchinson's American Lit- 
erature, 10 vols. 

Buckingham's Newspaper Literature, 2 
vols. 

Thomas' History of Printing, 2 vols. 

Bishop's American Manufactures, 2 vols. 

Johnston's American Politics. 

Stan wood's Presidential Elections. 
§Dwight's Travels (1796-1821), 4 vols. 

Lewis and Clark's Expedition (1804-1806), 
2 vols. (Coues' edition). 

Martineau's Society in America (1834-1836), 

4 vols. 

Johnston's American Orations, 4 vols. 

Tuckerman's American Art. 

Webster's Great Orations (Whipple). 

Hubert's Lives of Inventors. 

Nile's Register (1811-1849), 76 vols. 

For histories of the states, see Scudder's 

American Commonwealth Series, 13 vols. 

(in progress). 
Breck's Recollections (1771-1862). 
Fred. Douglass' Autobiography. 
Lyman Beecher's Autobiography (1775- 

1857), 2 vols. 
Curtis' Buchanan, 2 vols. 
Greeley's Recollections (1811-1860). 
Dolly Madison's Memoirs. 
Quincy's Figures of the Past. 
Goodrich's Recollections (1797-1854), 2 

vols. 
S. J. May's Autobiography. 
S. J. May's Anti-Slavery Days. 
J. F. Clarke's Anti-Slavery Days. 
Biography. See in Morse's American 

Statesmen Series (Houghton & Mifflin), 

the Lives of John Adams, J. Q. Adams, 



Contemporaneous or Early History. 



LIST OF BOOKS ON AMERICAN HISTORY xxix 



Benton, Calhoun, Clay, Jackson, Jeffer- 
son, Madison, Monroe, Morris, Ran- 
dolph, Washington, and Webster; in 
Sparks' American Biography, the Lives 
of Fulton and Rumford ; Sanborn's John 
Brown, Johnson's Garrison, Garrison's 
Life by his Children, 4 vols.. Prime's 
Morse, Rice's Morton, Abbott's Kit Car- 
son, Upham's Fremont, Parton's Famous 
Americans, Mrs. Stowe's Men of Our 
Times, Hunt's American Merchants. 

VI. The Period of the Civil 
War (1861-1865) 

Rhodes' United States, vols. II-V. 

Scribner's United States. 

Wilson's Division and Reunion (1829-1889). 

Burgess' Civil War, 2 vols. 

Curtis' Life of Buchanan, 2 vols. 

Greeley's American Conflict, 2 vols. 

Draper's Civil War, 3 vols. 

The Comte de Paris' Civil War, 4 vols. 

Scribner's Campaigns of the War, 13 vols. 

Schouler's Civil War. 

Johnson's Short History of the War. 

Dodge's Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War 
(revised edition). 

Ropes' Civil War. 

The Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 
(Century Company), 4 vols. 

Nichols' Story of the Great March. 

Conyngham's Sherman's March. 

McPherson's Political History of the Re- 
bellion. 

Blaine's Twenty Years in Congress, 2 vols. 

Swinton's Decisive Battles of the War. 

Billings' Hard Tack and Coffee. 

Pollard's Lost Cause (Confederate). 

Davis' Rise and Fall of the Confederate 
Government (Confederate), 2 vols. 

Cooke's Wearing of the Gray (Confederate). 

Johnston's Narrative of the War (Confed- 
erate). 

Gordon's Reminiscences of the Civil War 
(Confederate). 

Stephens' War between the States (Con- 
federate), 2 vols. 

Longstreet's From Manassas to Appomat- 
tox (Confederate). 

Ofificial Records of the War of the Rebel- 
Uon (with atlas), 120 vols, (in progress). 

Harper's Pictorial History of the Rebellion. 

Biography. Nicolay and Hay's Abraham 
Lincoln, Holland's Lincoln, Hemdon's 
Lincoln, 3 vols.. Carpenter's Six Months 
in the White House, Lodge's Lincoln, 
2 vols., McClure's Lincoln, McClellan's 



Ovm Story, Roman's Beauregard, 2 vols., 
Badeau's U. S. Grant, 3 vols., Grant's 
Personal Memoirs, 2 vols., Sherman's 
Memoirs, 2 vols., Sheridan's Memoirs, 
2 vols., Farragut's Life of Farragut, 
Schuckers' Life of S. P. Chase, Cooke's 
Robert E. Lee, Cooke's "Stonewall" 
Jackson, Johnston and Browne's Life of 
Alexander H. Stephens, Sherman's Let- 
ters ; the Lives of Generals Scott, Han- 
cock, Thomas, J. E. Johnston, Lee, and 
Admirals Farragut and Porter, in the 
Great Commander Series. 

VII. Reconstruction — The New 

Nation (1865 to the Present 

Time) 

Scribner's United States. 

Wilson's Division and Reunion. 

Brown's The United States since the Civil 
War, 2 vols. 

Burgess' Reconstruction. 

McPherson's Political History of Recon- 
struction. 

Barnes' History of the 39th Congress. 

Chadsey's Struggle between President 
Johnson and Congress (Columbia Uni- 
versity Studies, 1896). 

Scott's Reconstruction. 

Bryce's American Commonwealth, 2 vols, 
(revised edition). 

Life and Works of Henrj' W. Grady. 

Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress, 2 vols. 

Hoar's Autobiography. 

Johnston's American Politics. 

Pike's Prostrate State (South Carolina). 

McPherson's Political Handbooks (1870- 
1894). 

Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia (1876-1902). 

Bancroft's Pacific States, 34 vols. 

Thayer's New West. 

McClure's The South. 

Washington's Up from Slavery. 

Williams' Negro Race in America, 2 vols. 

Whitney's United States. 

Shaler's United States, 2 vols. 

King's The New South. 

Curry's The South. 

Badeau's Grant in Peace. 

Stoddard's Life of Garfield. 

Wilson's Presidents (1789- 1893). 

Andrews' The United States in Our Time. 

Whittle's Life of Cleveland. 

Morris' War with Spain. 

Harper's War with Spain, 3 vols. 

McKinley's Messages to Congress. 

Roosevelt's Messages to Congress. 



XXX THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



TABLE OF BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

( The student of A vierican History shotdd bear m mind that the political boundaries of 
the United States have been deter7nined to a very large degree by the natural boundaries 
of : I. coast lines; 2. rivers and lakes ; 3. watersheds ; 4. mountain ranges.) 

I. (1783) By the final Treaty of Peace of 1783 the boundary of the American 

Repubhc (see " Map of U. S. in 1783 ") was fixed, in general terms, as fol- 
lows: The line separating the United States from the British possessions 
began at the Bay of Fundy and ran to "the northwest angle of Nova Scotia," 
thence "to the Highlands," and thence "along the said Highlands which 
divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from 
those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean." Thence the line ran westerly 
along the 45th parallel, the middle of the St. Lawrence, and the middle of 
the Great Lakes to the Lake of the Woods. On the west, the line sepa- 
rating the United States from the Spanish province of Louisiana was 
drawn from the Lake of the Woods to the head-waters of the Mississippi 
and thence down the middle of that river to the 31st parallel — or the 
frontier of the Spanish province of West Florida. On the south, the line 
extended due east from the Mississippi along the 31st parallel to the Chat- 
tahoochee River in Georgia and thence to the sea as shown on the map. 
(See "U. S. Statutes at Large," VUL, 80; Macdonald's "Select Docu- 
ments of U. S. History"; Winsor's " America," VH. ; Gannett's "Bound- 
aries of the U. S." ; Hinsdale's " Bounding the Original U. S." in " Mag. 
of Western History," II., 401; Hart's "Epoch Maps of American His- 
tory.") 

Much of the region through which the northern boundary ran was an 
unexplored wilderness and the line was largely pure guesswork. This was 
the case west of Lake Superior, and notably so in the northeast, between 
what is now the State of Maine and the British possessions. The result 
was that for nearly sixty years this northeast line was a subject of angry 
dispute and the controversy was not finally settled until the negotiation of 
the Webster- A shburton Treaty of 1842. (See Winsor's "America," VII.; 
and Benton's "Thirty Years in the U. S. Senate," II., 421.) 

II. (1795) Spain refused to recognize the southern boundary of the United 

States as determined by the Treaty of Peace of 1783 (see above, No. I.). 
She claimed that her province of West Florida extended no miles north of 
the 31st parallel and that the true boundary line, separating her possessions 
in that quarter from the United States, extended due east from the Missis- 
sippi from the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chattahoochee River in Georgia. 



TABLE OF BOUNDARIES xxxi 

In 1795 Spain relinquished her claim to the disputed territory, and, 
furthermore, granted to the United States the free navigation of the lower 
Mississippi, besides conceding the temporary right of deposit (or storage 
for merchandise) at the port of New Orleans. (See " U. S. Statutes at 
Large," VIII., and Winsor and Hinsdale, as above.) 

III. (1803) In 1803 the United States purchased the province of Louisiana, 

which Spain had receded to France. That immense territory extended 
from the mouth of the Mississippi northward to its source, and had the 
Rocky Mountains as its natural boundary on the west. We bought the 
country without receiving any definite limits, and hence further negotia- 
tions became necessary with respect to boundary lines (see below), 

IV. (181 8) In consequence of the above purchase of Louisiana a treaty made by 

us with Great Britain in 181S extended the northern line of the United 
States from the Lake of the Woods (see above. No. I.) westward along the 
49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains. The same treaty provided that the 
country west of the Rocky Mountains, north of the 426. parallel (or the recog- 
nized Spanish frontier), and known as the Oregon country, should be held 
jointly by the United States and Great Britain. 

V. (1819-1825) In 1819 Spain sold Florida to us, and in the treaty defined the 

unsettled western boundary of Louisiana (see above, Nos. III. and IV.) by 
an irregular line which began at the Gulf of Mexico and approximately fol- 
lowed the watershed south and west of the tributaries of the Mississippi to 
the 426. parallel. At the same time Spain agreed to renounce all claims 
to the Oregon country. This was to us a most important concession. 
Six years later (1S25) a treaty made with Russia fixed the northern 
limit of the Oregon country (before unsettled) at 54° 40', or what is now the 
southern boundary of Alaska. 

VI. (1842) In 1842 the Webster- A shburton Treaty (see Index under *' Treaty") 

settled the long dispute over the northeastern boundary (see above. No. I.) 
and reaffirmed the line of 1818 to the Rocky Mountains (see above. No. 
IV.). 
VII. (1&45) In 1845 we annexed Texas; the boundary question was settled by the 
Mexican War. 
VIII. (1846) In 1846 a treaty made by us with Great Britain divided the Oregon 
country between the two nations by extending the boundary line of the 49th 
parallel (see above, No. IV.) from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. 
(See in general the " Map of Acquisitions of Territory.") 
IX. (1848-1867) All subsequent United States boundary lines on the continent 
(see map cited above) were determined by Mexican cessions in 1848, the 
Gadsden Purchase in 1853, and the Alaska Purchase in 1867. 
X. (i 898-1 899) The islands recently acquired by the United States present no 
difficulties respecting boundaries. 



xxxii THE STUDExNTS AME.vICAN HISTORY 



POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES AT EACH CENSUS. 



Year. 


Population. 


Population 
Living in Cities. 


Inhabitants of 
Cities in each 100 of 
THE Total Popu- 
lation. 


1790 


3,929,214 


131472 


3-35 


1800 


5,308,483 


210,873 


3-97 


1810 


7,239,881 


356,920 


4-93 


1820 


9,633,822 


475,135 


4-93 


1830 


12,866,020 


1,864,509 


6.72 


1840 


17,069,453 


1,453,994 


8.52 


1850 


23,191,876 


2,897,586 


12.49 


i860 


3i'443>32i 


5,072,256 


16.13 


1870 


38,558,371 


8,071,875 


20.93 


1880 


50,1 55,783 


11,318,547 


22.57 


1890 


62,622,250 


18,284,385 


29.20 


1900 


76,304,799 


24,992,199 


31.10 



All places having a population of 8000 and over are classed as cities. 

POPULATION OF THE FREE AND THE SLAVE STATES, 
1790-1860. 



Year. 


Free States. 


Slave States. 
(Including Negroes.) 


1790 


1,968,455 


1,961,372 


1800 


2,684,616 


2,621,316 


1810 


3,758,910 


3,480,902 


1820 


5,152,372 


4,485,819 


1830 


7,006,399 


5,848,312 


1840 


9,733,922 


7,334,433 


1850 


13,599,488 


9,663,997 


i860 


19,128,418 


12,315-372 



REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS 



XXXlll 



REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS FROM 1790 TO 1903. 



Year. 


Senate. 


House of Representatives. 


Ratio of 
Kepresen- 

TATlON.l 


Free States. 


Slave States. 


Free States. 


Slave States. 


1790 


14 




12 


35 


30 


30,000 


1793 


16 




14 


57 


48 


33.000 


1796 


16 




16 


57 


49 


33,000 


1803 


18 




16 


76 


65 


33.000 


1813 


18 




18 


103 


78 


35,000 


1816 


20 




18 


103 


78 


35.000 


1821 


24 




24 


105 


81 


35.000 


1823 


24 




24 


123 


90 


40,000 


1833 


24 




24 


141 


99 


47.700 


1837 


26 




26 


142 


100 


. 47.700 


1843 


26 




26 


135 


88 


70,680 


1848 


30 




30 


140 


91 


70,680 


1853 


32 




30 


144 


90 


93.423 


i860 


36 




30 


147 


90 


93.423 


1863 


72 




243 


127,381 


1873 


76 




293 


131.425 


1883 


76 




325 


151,911 


1893 


88 




356 


173.901 


1903 


90 




386 


193.175 



^ The number of representatives is fixed by Congress every ten years (Constitution, Art. I, 
sect. 2). To find the electoral vote, add together the number of senators and representatives ; 
e.g. the electoral vote in 1790 was gi. 



xxxiv THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



THE SECTIONS IN 1870. 



Sections. 


Population 
IN 1870. 


< 


a 

D 




i 
> 


The South : (Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Md., 
Miss., N. C, S. C, Tenn., Tex., Va., W. V.) 

The Northwest: (111., la., Ind., Ks., Mich., 
Minn., Mo., Neb., O., Wis.) 

The Middle States : (.Del., N. J., N. Y., Penn.) 

New England : (.Conn., Mass., Me., N. H., R. I., 
Vt.) .............'... 

The Pacific: (Cal., Col., Nev., Or.) 


12,032,225 

12,702,299 
8,941,625 

3,187,924 
889,789 


28 

20 
8 

12 

8 


92 

98 
68 

28 
7 


120 

118 
76 

40 
15 


Total 


38,925,598 


76 


293 


369 



B^^ The total population includes Territories and Indians. 



THE SECTIONS IN 1880. 



Sections. 


Population 
in 1880. 


< 


§ 


> 


The South 


16,188,757 
17,229,810 
10,644,233 
4,010,438 
1,296,367 


28 

20 

8 

12 

8 


106 
114 

70 
26 
9 


134 

38 
17 


The Northwest 


The Middle States 1 


The Pacific ... . ' 




Total 


50,155.783 


76 


325 


401 



The total population includes Territories and Indians. The Apportionment Act of 
Feb. 25, 1882, took effect March 3, 1883. 



THE SECTIONS IN 1890. 



























s 


bi 


S 


Sections. 


Population 
IN 1890. 


< 

w 
in 




> 
►J 


The South 


19,370,094 
22,362,279 


-'8 




'39 

X 


The Northwest 


24 


128 


The Middle States ... ... ... 


12,869,293 
4,700,745 
2,606,495 


8 


73 
27 
17 


New England ... 




39 
33 




16 




Total 


62,622,250 


88 


356 


444 



(H^^^^ The new States of Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah are classed 
with the Pacific States. The Dakotas are classed with the Northwest. The total population 
includes the Territories. The Apportionment Act of Feb. 7, 1891, took effect March 3, 1893. 
The next apportionment will take effect in 1903. 



THE SECTIONS 



XXXV 



THE SECTIONS IN 1900. 



Sections. 


Population 
in I goo. 


w 

h 
< 
Z 


a 




> 


North Atlantic Division 


21,046,695 
10,443,480 
26,333,004 
14,080,047 
4,oqi,34g 
154,001 








North Central Division 

South Central Division . ... 




Western Division 




Hawaii 








Total 


76,148,576 


go 


386 


476 



The Apportionment Act of 1901 took effect in 1903. 



INDEX 



Abolitionists, rise of the, 340, 355. 
Acadians, expulsion of the, 149. 
Acquisition of industrial rights, 564. 

of political rights, 563. 
Adams, John, elected President, 258. 

administration of, 260. 

John Quincy, elected President, 326. 
administration of, 327. 
and slavery, 340, 343, 355, 357, 363. 
and the Monroe Doctrine, 321, 322, 
323- 

Samuel, 184, 1S9, 191. 
Agriculture in 1790, 250. 

in the West, 355, 409, 576, 596, 597, 610. 

Department of, 596. 
Alabama admitted, 313. 
"Alabama " claims, the, 451, 536. 
Alaska, purchase of, 526. 

boundary settled, 60S. 
Albany founded, 50, 55. 

plan of union, 148. 
Algiers, war with, 278. 

treaty with, 257. 
Alien and Sedition Laws, 262. 
Alien Contract Labor Act, 552. 
Allen, Ethan, 191. 

Amendments to the Constitution, the first 
twelve, 242, 271. 

after the Civil War, 518, 520, 528. 
America discovered by the Northmen, 1 . 

discovered by Columbus, 7. 

conthient of, discovered (1497) by John 
Cabot, 9. 

claimed (1497) by England, 9, 10. 

how discovered to be a continent, 1 1 . 

name of, 11. 

effects of the discovery of, on Europe, 26. 

English and French colonies, 17, 19. 

England's reasons for colonizing, 31. 

First law-making assembly in, 38. 

Dutch settlements in, 48. 

First permanent English settlement in, 
34- 

French settlements in, 17, 18. 

Spanish settlements in, 17, 18. 

Swedish settlements in, 116. 

struggle of England and France for, 1^7- 
154. 

declares itself independent, 201. 

first flag of, 198, 210. 
"American Policy " (tariff), 323, 344. 
Americas, Congress of the three, 561. 
Amnesty, proclamations of, 514, 521, 525, 

569- 
Anarchists at. Chicago, 556. 



Anderson, Major R., at Fort Sumter, 437, 

444- 
Andersonville prison pen, 476. 
Andre executed, 219. 
Andros, Governor, 56, 57, 65, 89, 105. 
Anne's, Queen, War, 145. 
Annexation of Texas, 371-375. 
Anthracite coal discovered, 128. 
Antietam, battle of, 470. 
Anti-Slavery (see Abolitionists), 340. 
Appomattox, Lee's surrender at, 506. 
Apprentices, white, in Virginia, 37, 39. 
Arbitration, international, 535, 572, 576, 578. 
Arkansas slave territory, 314. 

admitted, 356. 
Army of the Revolution, 191, 192. 

of the War of 1812, 292. 

of the Mexican War, 382. 

of the Civil War, 446, 450, 509, 516, 517. 
Arnold, Benedict, in the Revolution, 199, 
210. 

treason of, 218. 
Art, early American, 172. 
Arthur becomes President, 551. 
Articles of Confederation, 202, 226, 228, 233. 
Assemblies, Colonial, 38, 53, 55, 61, 64, 73, 
78, 92, 96, 103, 105, log, no, 113, 114, 117, 
120, 127, 129, 135. 
Assistance, Writs of, 179. 
Association, Articles of, 188. 
Assumption of state debts, 244. 
Astor, John J., and the War of 1812, 293. 

and Oregon, 379. 
Atlanta taken by Sherman, 496. 

Exhibition, 574. 
Atlantic telegraph completed, 525. 
Austin, S. F., and Texas, 320. 
Australian ballot introduced, 560. 
Authors, American, 348. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, rebellion of, 44, 45. 
Balboa discovers the Pacific, 14. 
Ballot, Australian, or secret, 560. 
Baltimore, Lord, founds Maryland, 107. 
Baltimore, city of, founded, in. 

first blood in Civil War shed at, 447. 
Bank, the first U. S., established, 245. 

the second U. S., 305. 

U. S., Jackson and the, 349-353- 
Banks, the "pet," 353. 

state, 353. 

"wildcat," 353. 

national, established, 452. 

savings banks, growth of, 598. 
Banks, General N. P., 467, 488. 



xxxviii THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Baptist Church, the first, 113. 

Baptists driven out of Massachusetts, 86. 

denied liberty of worship, no. 

go to Rhode Island, 113. 
Battle of Alamance, 122. 

Allatoona, 499. 

Antietam, or Sharpsburg, 470. 

Atlanta, 496. 

Averysboro, 504. 

Ball's Bluff (note), 460. 

Bemis Heights, 210. 

Bennington, 208. 

Bentonville, 504. 

Big Black River, 486. 

Bladensburg, 298. 

Brandy wine, 208. 

Buena Vista, 385. 

Bull Run (first), or Manassas, 456. 

Bull Run (second), or Manassas, 469. 

Bunker Hill, 197, 198. 

Camden (first), 217. 

Camden (second), or Hobkirk's Hill, 
222. 

Cerro Gordo, 385. 

Champion Hills, 486. 

Chancellorsville, 479. 

Chapultepec, 386. 

Charleston, 217. 
evacuated, 504. 

"Chesapeake" and "Shannon," 295, 
296. 

Chickamauga, 489. 

Chippewa, 298. 

Chrysler's Farm, 298. 

Churubusco, 386. 

Cold Harbor, 493. 

Concord, 190. 

" Constellation," the, captures a French 
frigate, 261. 

"Constitution" and " Guerriere," 294. 

Contreras, 386. 

Corinth, 477. 

Cowpens, 220. 

Crown Point, 190. 

Dallas, 496. 

Detroit, Hull's surrender of, 293. 

" Essex," the, in the Pacific, 295. 

Eutaw Springs, 222. 

Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines, 467. 

Flamborough Head (Paul Jones), 216. 

Fort Donelson, 461. 

Fort Duquesne, 148. 

Fort Fisher, 503. 

Fort Henry, 461. 

Fort McAllister, 501. 

Fort McHenry, 298. 

Fort Mims (massacre), 299. 

Fort Moultrie, 200. 

Fort Pillow, 476. 

Fort Stanwix, 210. 

Fort Sumter, 444. 

Fort Wagner, 476. 

Fort Washington, 204. 

Franklin, 501. 

Fredericksburg, 470. 

Germantown, 208. 

Gettysburg, 479-484. 

Guilford Court House, 222. 

Hobkirk's Hill, 222. 

Horseshoe Bend, or Tohopeka, 299. 



Battle of Island Number Ten, 463. 

luka, 477. 

" Kearsarge " and "Alabama," 502. 

Kenesaw Mountain, 496. 

King's Mountain, 219. 

Lake Champlain, 297. 

Lake Erie, 296. 

Lexington, 189, 190. 

Long Island, 203, 204. 

Lookout Mountain, 489. 

Louisburg, 146. 

Lundy's Lane, 298. 

Manila, 590, 593, 594. 

Mill Springs, 461. 

Missionary Ridge, 489, 490. 

Mobile Bav, 502. 

Molino del Rey, 386. 

"Monitor" and the " Merrimac," 463, 
464. 

Monmouth, 213. 

Monterey, 3S3. 

Murfreesboro, or Stone River, 478. 

Narragansett Fort, 87. 

Nashville, 501. 

New Orleans (1815), 302. 

New Orleans (1862), 465. 

Oriskany, 210. 

Palo Alto, 383. 

Pea Ridge, 460. 

Peninsular Campaign, 466. 

Pequot Fort, 102. 

Perryville, 477. 

Petersburg, 493. 

Petersburg (Mine), 495. 

Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, 463. 

Port Hudson, 4SS. 

Princeton, 206. 

Quebec (1759), 151. 

Quebec (1775), 199. 

Resaca, 496. 

Resaca de la Palma, 383. 

San Juan, 592. 

Santiago, 592. 

Saratoga, 211. 

Savannah, 501. 

Seven days round Richmond, 468. 

Spottsylvania Court House, 493. 

Stony Point, 216. 

Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 190, 191. 

Tippecanoe, 289. 

Tohopeka, 299. 

Trenton, 205, 206. 

Tripoli, 278. 

Tullahoma, 478, 489. 

Turner's Falls, 88. 

Vera Cruz, 3S5. 

Vicksburg, siege and capture of, 484- 
488. 

Wilderness, the, 492. 

Wilson's Creek (note), 460. 

Winchester, 495. 

Yorktown, 225. 
Beauregard,. General P. G. T., 445, 463, 477. 
Bemis Heights, or Saratoga, battle of, 210. 
Benton, Thomas H., 352, 372, 379, 399, 410. 
Bering Sea case, 572. 
Berkeley, Sir William, 41. 
Biloxi, the French build a fort at, 142. 
Black Friday, 541. 
Black Hawk War, 349. 



INDEX 



XXXI X 



Bland-Allison Silver Act, 546; repealed, 

565- 
Blockade, the, in the Civil War, 508. 
"Blue Light Federalists," 2gg. 
Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky, 123. 
Border states in the Civil War, 448. 
Boston, settlement of, 76. 

Latin School, S2. 

Massacre, 183. 

"Tea Party," 185. 

port of, closed, 1S6. 

siege of, iSg-igg. 

evacuated by the British, 2cx:>. 
Braddock's defeat, i4g, 150. 
Bradford, jj^vernor, of Plymouth, 71. 
Bragg, General B., 477. 
" Brook Farm," 360. 
Brown, John, in Kansas, 415. 

raid and execution of, 430. 

John Brown song, 432. 
Brown University founded, 115. 
Buchanan elected President, 420. 

administration of, 421-442. 
Buell, General D. C, 462, 477. 
" Bummers," Sherman's, 500. 
Burgesses, House of, established, 38. 
Burgoyne expedition, 208-210. 
Bumside, General A. E., 470, 47g. 
Burr, Aaron, conspiracy of, 280. 
Butler, General B. F., and the "contra- 
bands," 470. 

at New Orleans, 465, 471, 503. 

Cabeza de Vaca, 14. 
Cabinet, the first, 240. 

the enlarged (note), 557. 
Cabot, John, discovers (i4g7) the continent 
of America, g. 

claims America (i4g7)for England, g, 10. 
Cabots, voyages of the, 8, g. 
Calhoun and nullification, 344. 

resolutions (1837), 363; (1847), 3go. 

defends slavery, 343, 363, 400. 

" Exposition and Protest," 335. 

urges the annexation of Texas, 372. 

advocates War of 1812, 2go. 

" Liberty dearer than Union," 33g. 

and Compromises of 1850, 3gg. 
California, conquest of, 386-388. 

gold found in, 3g£. 

emigration to, 3g2. 

"Vigilance Committee," 3g3. 

results of production of gold, 3g4. 

debate on admission of, as free state, 3gg. 

admission of, 402. 
Canal, the Erie, 328. 

the Panama, 602, 608. 
Canon of the Colorado discovered, 16. 
Carolina, settlements of North and South, 
n8. 

"The Grand Model," iig. 

religious toleration, 120. 

settlement of Charleston, 120. 

Huguenot emigrants, 120. 

trade in rice and indigo, 121. 

Indian wars, 121. 

Governor Tryon, 122. 

battle of Alamance, 122. 

Robertson and Sevier, 122, 123. 

Stamp Act Congress, 123. 



Carolina, nullification'in, 344. 

secession of, 436. 

negro rule in, 533. 
" Caroline " affair, the, 364. 
Carpenters' Hall, the first Congress meets 

in, 187. 
" Carpetbaggers," 532, 533. 
Cartier's explorations, 17. 
Carver, Governor John, 71. 
Catholics, the, in England, 67, 68, 108. 

severe treatment of, 35, 5g. 

not allowed to enter Virginia, 35, 107. 

emigrate to Maryland, 108. 

establish the first English Catholic 
Church in America, 108. 

first in Pennsylvania, 168. 

grant religious freedom to all C'hristians, 
I eg. 

are deprived of their rights, ro<j, i m. 

missions, 138. 

the, in the different colonies, 57, sg, 65, 
85, 86, gi, no, in, 114, 120, 126, 167, 
168. 

Louis XIV excludes Protestants from 
Louisiana, 142. 
('aucus. Congressional, 325. 
" Caucus King," overthrow of, 325. 
Cavaliers, the, in Virginia, 42. 
Census, the first (i7go), 248. 
Census of 1800, 268. 

of i860, 44g. 

of i8go, 567; of igoo, 601. 
Centennial Exhibition of 1876, 542. 

celebrations, 55g. 

Patent Office, celebration of, 568. 

See Exhibitions. 
Chambersburg, burning of, 4g4. 
Champlain, the French explorer, 137. 
Channing, Dr., on slavery, 341. 
Charleston, South Carolina, settlement of, 
120. 

surrenders to the Union army, 504. 
Charter Oak, the, 105. 
Charter of the Virginia Companies (1606), 

32. 
Charters, colonial. See Colonies. 
Chase, Secretary in Lincoln's Cabinet, 445. 
Chatham, Lord.' See Pitt. 
"Chesapeake," the, and the "Shannon," 

295- 
Chicago, first settlement at, 270, 34g. 

anarchists in, 556. 

strike at, 572, 573. 

Columbian Exposition at, 571. 
China, " the open door" in, 600. 
Chinese immigration, 552, 557. 

exclusion, 552, 557. 
Christian Commission, the, 454. 
Church and State, separation of, 312. 
Cincinnati, settlement of, 24g. 
Cities, growth and government of, 584. 
Civil Service Reform, 545, 551. 

progress in, 577, 57g. 
Civil War, beginning of the, 444. 

uprising of the North, 446. 

uprising of the South, 447. 

North vs. South in the, 44g-45i . 

financial side of, 451. 

Union navy in, 451. 

Confederate privateers in, 451. 



xl 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Civil War, foreign powers in, 453. 

Sanitary and Christian Commissions in, 

454- 

woman's work in the, 454, 455. 

object of, 455. 

cost of, 509. 

loss of life in, 50.;. 

results of, 510, 511. 

the grand review, 5i<S. 

condition of the South after the, 517. 
Clark and Lewis, expedition of, 276. 

George Rogers, and the West, 214. 
("lay. Henry, his American system, or 
tariff, 306, 323, 344. 

Compromise Measures, 319, 399. 

advocates War of 1812, 290. 

condemnation of slavery, 340. 

denunciation of Abolitionists, 343. 

letter of, 374. 

favors the extension of slavery, 315. 

resolutions on slavery, 363. 
Clayborne and Ingle, 109. 
Cleveland elected President, 553- 

administration of, sss-sfio. 

vetoes by, 557, 558. 

second election of, 570. 

administration of, 570-579. 
Clinton, De Witt, and the Erie Canal, 328. 
Clinton, General, igi, 200, 213, 214, 224. 
Coal comes into use, 249. 

the great strike, 607. 
Cod fisheries, Newfoundland C 1497- 1498), 10; 
(1600), 31 •,(1775), 189; (1783), 226. 

disputes about the, 536, 558. 
Coinage, first, 245, 246. 
Coinage Act, New, 538, 539. 

Silver, Act, 546, 565. 
repealed, 572. 
College, Harvard, founded, 82, 172. 

William and Mary, 172. 

Yale, founded, 104, 172. 

University of Pennsylvania, 172. 

Columbia, 172. 

P>rown University, 115, 172. 

Dartmouth, 98. 
Colonies, Dutch, 48. 

English, 19, 32. 

French, 17, 18. 

Spanish (St. Augustine), 18. 

Swedish, 116. 

general view of, in 1763, 156-176. 

population of, 156. 

government of, 157.' 

laws of, 158, 159, 160. 

slavery in, 161, 162. 

conflicting interests in, 162. 

" poor whites " in, 162. 

industries in, 163, 164. 

commerce, 163. 

manufactures, 164. 

currency, 165. 

roads, 165. 

travel, 166. 

post office, 166. 

religion, 166. 

press, 168. 

literature and education, 168-172. 

science and art, 172. 

discoveries and inventions, 172, 173. 

mode of life, 173, 174. 



Colonies, indications of the coming Re\oiu- 
tion, 174, 175. 

importance of colonial period, 175, 176. 

loyalty of, 179. 
Colorado admitted, 542. 
Colt's revolver, 355. 
Columbia River discovered, 250. 
Columbus proposes a new route to the 
Indies, 4. 

voyage to America (1492), 6. 

letter of, respecting the New World, 7. 

his return to Spain, 7. 

what he discovered, 8. 

his death, 8. 

greatness of his work, 8. ^^ 
Commerce of U. S., 240, 249, 3)i|582, 6pi. 
Compromise Measures of 1S50, 399. 

Missouri, 317, 318. 

Crittenden, 435. 
Confederacy, New England (1643'), 83. 

the Southern, organized, 43S. 
Confederation, Articles of, 226. 

provisions of the, 228. 

weakness of the, 229. 

state of country under the, 229. 

attempts of Congress of, to raise money, 
230. 
Congregationalists in colonies, 167. 
Congress, First Continental, 187. 

Second Continental, 191. 

first, under the Constitution, 239. 

Panama, 331. 

Pan-American, 561. 
C'ongressional Library Building, 583. 
Connecticut, first settlement of, 100. 

reasons for settling, lor. 

war with the Pequots, loi. 

constitution of, 102. 

New Haven Colony, 103. 

free schools, 104. 

Yale University, 104. 

regicides, 104. 

Andros and the charter of, 105, k>6. 

New Haven united with, 105. 

Charter Oak, 106. 

extent of, under its charter, 105. 
Constitution, Convention to frame, 233. 

conflicting opinions in Convention, 234. 

the three great compromises of the, 

235- 
the new, adopted, 236. 
"broad" vs. "strict" construction of, 

246, 247, 265. 
amendments to, 242, 271, 520, 521, 528, 

the elastic clause ot, 247. 

the " Grand Model," 119: 

of Pennsylvania (" Great Law "), 126. 
('onstitutions, revised state, 511, 584. 
" Contrabands" (fugitive slaves), 472. 
Convention, first national presidential, 352. 
Convicts sent to America, 161. 
" Copperheads" in the Civil War, 453, 469, 

470, 480. 
Com found in America, 27. 
Comwallis, General, 200, 205, 206, 217, 221, 

224, 225. 
Coronado's expedition, 16. 
Corporations and " trusts," 581. 
Correspondence Committees (1772-1773), 1S4. 



INDEX 



xli 



Cotton found in America, 27. 

first exported, 250. 

gin invented, 251. 

effect on slavery', 251. 

exhibition at New Orleans, 553. 

manufacture first established, 251. 

effect of War of 181 2 on manufacture of, 
306. 

crop of 1SS4, 554. 

manufacture in i.Stp, 574. 
Cotton-seed oil, 554. 
Covode investigation (note), 429. 
Coxey "industrial army," 572. 
Crawford Tenure of Office Act, 311;. 
Credit Mobilier (note), 531. 
Croatoan, 20. 
Crystal Palace (1853), 408. 
Cuba, 4ig, 585-590, 604. 
Currency. See Finance, Motiey, Silver, 

Gold, Greenbacks, Banks. 
Custer, General, killed, 544. 

Daguerreotype, introduction of the, 3^14. 
Dale, Governor, in Virginia, 36. 
Davenport, Rev. John, 103. 
Davis, Jefferson, in Mexican War, 3.S5. 

in Congress, 399, 411. 

advocates secession, 429. 

President of Confederate States, 43S. 

capture of, 506. 
Debt, Hamilton's Report on U. S., 242. 

funding the, 244. 

of the War of 1812, 293, y>o. 

of the Civil War, 510. 

payment of, begun, 517. 

Grant on payment of the, 528. 

reduction of interest on, 548. 

present, of the United States, 548. 

of the War with Spain, 595. 
Decatur, Commodore, 278. 
Declaration of Independence, 201. 
De Gourges' revenge, 18. 
Delaware, Lord, 36. 
Delaware, settled by the Swedes, 116. 

seized by the Dutch, 116. 

English, 116, 

granted to William Penn, 117. 

becomes independent, 117. 

first state to enter the Union, 117. 
Delaware, Washington crosses the, 205. 
De Leon, Ponce, discovers Florida, 13. 
Democratic party. See Parties. 
Demonetization of silver, 538, 539. 
Deposits, Jackson withdraws the, 353. 
De Soto, expedition of, 15. 

discovers the Mississippi, 15. 

is buried in it, 15. 
De Vaca, Cabeza, 14. 
Dewey, Rear Admiral, 590, 591. 593^ 594- 
Diaz, Bartholomew, voyage of (i487)> 4- 
Dinwiddle, Governor, of Virginia, 46. 
Disunion. See Secession. 
Dollar, the first, coined, 246. 

demonetized, 539. 

remonetized, 547. 

demand for free silver, 566, 577, 57S. 

bullion value of the, 548, 566, 571. 

a fiat paper, demanded, 543- 
Dorr rebellion, the, 369. 
" t)oughfaces " in politics, 318. 



Douglas, Stephen A.^ 374, 397, 409, 410, 429, 

432, 446. 
Dover, N.H., settled, 94. 
Draft riots in New York, 480. 
Drake, voyage of (1577-1579), 11, 19. 

names Pacific coast New Albion, 19. 
Dred Scott ca.se, 421, 424. 
Duluth, 144. 
Dutch, the, in New Netherland (New 

York), 47. 

.seize the Delaware country, 63. 

dispossessed of New York by the K,ng- 
lish, 55. 

dispossessed of Delaware, 63. 

Kads', Captain, work on the Mississippi, 

549- . 
Early's raid, 493. 
Education. See Schools and Colleges. 

Governor Berkeley on, in Virginia, 171. 

in the colonies, 171. 

beginning of free, in America, 82. 

at the West, 271, 272, 330, 564, 597. 

at the South since the war, 575. 
Hldwards, Rev. Jonathan, 169. 
Election of Hayes disputed, 544. 
Election,presidential,Washington(i788),238. 

Washington (1792), 251, 252. 

J. Adams (1796), 258. 

Jefferson (1800), 266, 267. 
(1804), 277. 

Madison (1808), 286. 
" (1812), 295. 

Monroe (1816), 307. 
" (1820), 320. 

J. Q. Adams (1824), 325. 

Jackson (1828), 335. 
" (1832), 352- 

Van Buren (1836), 356. 

Harrison (1840), 366. 

Polk (1844), 373- 

Taylor (1848), 395- 

Pierce (1852), 406. 

Buchanan (1856), 419. 

Lincoln (i860), 432-434. 
" (1864), 498. 

Grant (1868), 524. 

(1872), 536. 

Hayes (1876), 543. 

Garfield (1880), 549. 

Cleveland (1884), 553. 

Harrison (1888), 559. 

Cleveland (1892), 569. 

McKinley (1896), 577. 
(1900), 603. 

Roosevelt (1904). 611. 

See names of Presidents. 
Electoral Commission, 544. 

Count Act, 557. 
Electric railways, 378. 

light, 378. 

telegraph, the, 375, 525. 
Electricity, Franklin's discoveries m, 172. 

progress in application of, 172, 377._ 
Eliot's, Rev. John, work among the Indians, 

86. 
Emancipation of slaves, asked for, 248. 

Lincoln's plan of, 472. 

in the District of Columbia, 473- 

in the Territories, 473. 



xlii 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Emancipation, Lincoln's letter on, 473. 

Proclamation of warning, 474. 

final Proclamation, 474. 

results of, 475. 
Embargo, the first, 256. 

Act(iSo7), 283. 

results of the, 285. 
Emigration to the United States, 365. 

from China, restricted, 552. 

laws concerning, 552, 557. 
Endicott, Governor, 75. 
English explorations, early, 19. 

attempts to colonize America, 19, 20. 

first permanent colony in America, 32. 
Episcopalians in Massachusetts, 75, 86, 93, 
95, 166, 167. 

in the Middle Colonies and the South, 
166, 167. 
" Era of Good Feeling," 308. 
Ericson, Leif, voyages of, 2. 
Ericsson invents the screw propeller, 355. 

" Monitor," 464. 
Erie Canal, 328. 

" Essex," the, in the War of 1812, 295. 
Ether, Dr. Morton's discovery respecting, 

395- 
Exchange of prisoners (Civil War), 476. 
Excise tax, 241. 
Exhibition, American World's Fair, 40S. 

the Centennial, 542. 

the New Orleans, 553. 

World's Columbian, 571. 

the Atlanta, 574. 

at Omaha, 595. 

at St. Louis, 609-611. 
Exports, American, 582. 
Express system established, 364. 

" Farmer's Letters, A," 1S3. 
Farms, great, of the West, 576. 

See, too, Agriculture. 
Farragut, Admiral, takes New Orleans, 466. 

enters Mobile Bay, 502. 
Federalists, the, 246. 

fall of the, 267. 

" Blue Light," 299. 
Filibusters attempt to seize Cuba and Cen- 
tral America, 419. 
Fillmore becomes President, 402. 
Finance. See Banks, Gold, Greenbacks, 
Loans, Panics, Silver, Tariff, Taxation, 
Treasury. 
Finances of the Revolution, 195. 
Financial side of the Civil War, 451. 
Fires, the Chicago and the Boston, 540. 
Fiscal Bank Bill, the, 368. 
Fisheries, the Newfoundland (1497-1498), 
10 ;_ (1600), 31 ; (1775), 189; (1783), 226. 

dispute about, 536, 544, 558. 
Fitch's steamboat, 279. 
Flag, the first American, 198, 210. 

first American, on a war ship, 99. 

the " Star Spangled Banner,." 299. 

the, protects the crew, 370. 

the "bear," California, 387. 

the Confederate, 438. 

the Union, triumphant, 507. 
Florida, discovery and naming of, 13. 

Narvaez in, 14. 

De Soto in, 15. 



Florida, French and Spaniards in, 17, 18. 

ceded to England; retroceded, 153. 

purchase of, by the United States, 310. 

admitted, 374. 
Foote, Commodore A. H., 462. 
" Force Act " (1809), 285 ; (1832^ 345 ; (1871), 
^534, 572- 

Forests, preservation of, 597. 
Fort Dearborn, now Chicago, 270. 

Donelson captured by Grant, 462. 

Duquesne, 148. 

Pitt, now Pittsburg, 151. 

Fisher, capture of, 503. 

Monroe garrisoned, 456, 472. 

Necessity built by Washington, 148. 

Mims, massacre at, 299. 

Orange, now Albany, 55. 

Moultrie, 200. 
Forts, line of French, in the West in the 

eighteenth century, 144. 
France sends expedition to America, 17. 

colonies of, in America, 17, 18, 41. 

struggle of, with England for America, 
137-^56. 

recognizes American independence, 212. 

aid from, in the Revolution, 192, 193, 
196, 211, 212, 223, 224, 243. 

our relations with (1793), 252-254. 

trouble with, 253, 260, 261. 

war with, 261. 

John Adams' treaty with, 262. 

sells us Louisiana, 273. 

See the French. 
Franklin, writings of, 170. 

electrical experiments of, 172. 

snake, the (Albany Convention), 148. 

and the Stamp Act, 180. 

negotiates treaty with France, 211. 

helps frame the Constitution, 233, 236. 
Free-Soil Party, 396. 
" Freedmen," the, 513, 514. 

Bureau Bill, 519. 

present condition of, 575, 584. 
Fremont, J. C, conquers California, 386. 

in the Civil War, 460, 472. 

nominated for the Presidency, 498. 
French, the, explore the St. Lawrence, 17. 

the, in Carolina and Florida, 17, 18. 

explore and take possession of the 
West, 137. 

found Mobile and New Orleans, 142, 

'.44- . 
build line of forts in the West, 144. 
and Indian Wars, 144-146. 
attack on Schenectady, 145. 
See France, Huguenots. 
Friction matches, 173, 355. 
Friends, or Quakers, buy New Jersey, 64, 
65. 
treaties with the Indians, 126. 
in Massachusetts, 84, 85. 
severely dealt with, 84, 85. 
George Fox founds the Society of, 83. 
found Pennsylvania, 124. 
remonstrance against slavery (1688), 127. 
in general, 54, 64, 65, 73, 82, 83, 84, 85, 
103, 109, 1 10, 113, 115, 120, 124, 126, 
127, 128, 129. 
See William Penn. 
Frobisher's voyages, 19. 



INDEX 



xliii 



Frontier line, none in 1890, 567. 
Fugitive-slave law, 248, 371. 

of 1850, 403. 

enforcement of the, 404. 
Fulton's steamboat, 279. 

Gadsden, Christopher, 124. 
Gadsden purchase, the, 389. 
Gage, General, in Boston, i8g. 

proclamation, 191. 
"Gag rule," 355. 363. 
Garlield elected President, 549. 

assassination of, 551. 
Ciarrison publishes the " Liberator," 341. 

mobbed, 342. 
Gas comes into use, 355. 
" Gaspee," the, destroyed, 184. 
Gates, General H., 210, 211, 217. 
Genet, " Citizen," 253. 
Geography and U. S. History, 28. 
George III, accession and policy of , 177. 
Georgia, settlement of, 131. 

Oglethorpe in, 131. 

charter of, 131. 

slavery in, 132, 134, 135. 

production of silk in, 133. 

Savannah settled (1733), 133. 

Salzburgers, 133. 

introduction of negroes and rum, 135. 

Oglethorpe and the Spaniards in, 135. 

becomes a royal province, 136. 

in the Revolution, 136. 

Indian land cessions, 330. 

controversy with the tJ. S., 330, 345. 
" Gerrymander," the, 319. 
Gettysburg, battle of, 480, 482. 

Lincoln's address at, 484. 
Ghent, treaty of, 303. 
Giddings, 370, 403. 
Gifts and bequests, 599. 
Gilbert, v^oyage of Sir H., 19. 
Goffe, the regicide, at Hadley, 87. 
Gold, discovery of, in California, 391. 

effects of, in 1857, 393, 394. 
Gold Standard Act, 600. 
" Good Feeling, the Era of," 308. 
Good Hope, Cape of, named, 4. 
Gorges, Sir F., 94, 95. 
Gosnold's exjDedition, 31. 
Governments, colonial. See Colonies. 

organization of our present, 239, 240. 

See Constitution and United States. 
" Grand Model," the, 119. 
Grant, General U. S., takes Fort Henry, 
462. 

" unconditional surrender" letter, 462. 

takes Fort Donelson, 462. 

at Pittsburg Landing, 463. 

takes Vicksburg, 484-4S8. 

made general in chief, 490. 

and Sherman's " hammering campaign," 
491. 

in battle of the Wilderness, 492. 

sends Sheridan to lay waste the Shen- 
andoah Valley, 494. 

takes Petersburg, 506. 

in Richmond, 506. 

receives Lee's surrender, 506. 

elected President, 525. 
administration of, 528. 



Grant, General U. S., second election of, 538. 

death of, 555. 
Greeley's, Horace, letter to Lincoln, 473. 

nominated for the Presidency, 537, ss^^- 
" Greenback " party, the, 542, 
" Greenbacks,' issue of, 452. 

redemption of, in part, 547. 
Greene, General N., at the South, 220. 

campaign in the Carolinas, 220-222. 

Hague Court of Arbitration, 600. 

" Hail Columbia," song of, 261. 

" Halfway Covenant," 78. 

Halleck, General H., 468. 

Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, 240. 

financial measures of, 242-245. 

leads the Federalists, 246, 247. 

shot by Burr, 280. 
Hancock, John, British attempt to seize, 
189. 

made President of Congress, 191. 

British refuse to offer pardon to, 191. 
Hancock, General W. S.,at Gettysburg, 4S3. 
Harnden founds the express business, 364. 
HaiTison, General, at Tippecanoe, 289. 

presidential campaign, 366. 

elected President, 366. 

death of, 367. 
Harrison, Benjamin, elected President, 550. 

administration of, 5^0, 561. 
Hartford Convention (1814), 300. 
Harvard University founded, 82. 
Hawaii, Republic of, 573. 

annexed, 594. 
Hayes elected President, 544. 

election of, disputed, 544. 

administration of, 545. 
Hayne's debate with Webster, 338. 
Henry, Patrick, resolutions of, on Commit- 
tee of Correspondence, iSi, 185. 

"We must fight," 189. 
Henry, letters, the, 290. 
Hessians in the Revolution, 193, 205. 
Higher law, the, Seward's appeal to, 401. 
Hoe's press, 349. 

" Holy Experiment," Penn's, 124. 
Flomestead Act, 596. 
Hood, General J. B., 496, 501. 
Hooker, General J., 479, 489.' 
Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 102. 
Hopkins, "Admiral" Esek, 193. 
Howe, Admiral, arrives at New York, 203. 
Howe's, Elias, sewing machine, 394. 
Howe, General, arrives at Boston, 191. 

at battle of Bunker Hill, 197. 

made commander in chief, 19S. 

is driven from Boston, 200. 

sails for Halifax, 200. 

arrives at New York, 202. 

takes Brooklyn Heights, 204. 

drives Washington from New York, 204. 

Washington batifles, 207. 

sails for Philadelphia, 207. 

enters Philadelphia. 2<5S. 

is superseded by Clinton, 213. 
Howes, the, offer pardon to submissive 

rebels, 203. 
Hudson, Henry, 47. 

Huguenots attempt to settle in America, 17, 
18. 



XilV 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Huguenots settle in Charleston, 120. 

illustrious descendants of the, 120. 
Hull, Captain Isaac, victory of, 294. 
Hull's, William, inarch to Detroit, 2')^. 

surrender, 293. 
Hiilsemann letter, Webster's, 406. 
Hutchinson, Governor, 1S5, 187, 194. 

Mrs. Anne, 81. 

Idaho admitted, 561. 
Illinois, La Salle in, 141. 

admitted, 313. 
Immigration to trie U. .S., 365, 59b. 

Chinese, restricted, 552. 

Chinese, prohibited, 557. 
Impeachment of President Johnson, 524. 
Impressment of American sailors, 255. 
fmpfovement of the Mississippi, 549. 
^' Improvements, Internal," question of, 278, 

320, 325, 327, 331. 
Indented apprentices or servants, 37, 39, jfi. 
Independence, Declaration of, 201. 
Indiana conquered by Clark, 215. 

part of the Northwest Territory, 22S. 

admitted, 307. 
Indians, why so named, 7. 

their character and numbers, 20. 

influence on white settlers, 21. 

indebtedness of the colonists to the, 22. 

value of wampum, 22. 

labor of the, 22. 

trade with the, 22, 4.S. 134. 

trails and waterways of the, 24. 

war with the Pequots, 101. 

wars with the, 25. 

King Philip's War, 86. 

war with, in Virginia, 44. 

our relations with the, 25. 

land cessions by the, 25, 255, 289, 330, 
349- 

alliances or treaties with the, 25, 56, 126. 

the Iroquois, or Five Nations Clater the 
Six Nations), 25, 48, 56, 121. 

Bacon's war with, in Virginia, 44. 

war with the Canadians, 58. 

the Quakers and the, 65, 126, 128. 

the Pilgrims and the, 72. 

Roger Williams and the, 8j. 

the New England Confederacy and the, 

Eliot s work among the, 86. 
Goffe and the, 87. 
battle of Narragansett Fort, 87. 
wars in North Carolina, 121. 
Penn and the, 126. 
wars in Pennsylvania, 128. 
and the French, 137. 
Pontiac's conspiracy, 152. 
massacres by, in Revolution, 214. 
Wayne's victory over the, 255. 
war with Tecumseh, 289. 
Seminole wars, 309, 363. 
Black Hawk War, 349. 
Modoc War, 544. 
Sioux War, 544. 
French and Indian War, 146. 
Indies, trade with, in fifteenth century, 3. 
schemes for reaching the, by sea, 4, 8. 
America supposed to be part of the, 7,8. 
West, the, explored by Columbus, 7. 



Indies, question of trade with the West, 256, 
257> 333. 338. 

Indigo, culture of, in South Carolina, 121. 

Inflation Bill, the, vetoed, 541. 

Initiative and referendum, 585. 

Interstate Commerce Act, 557. 

Intolerable Acts, the four, iSb. 

Intolerance, religious, 36, 41, 75) 79,91, iio, 
tti, 114, 120. 

Inventions, American. See cotton gin, 251; 
" Monitor," 464 ; reaper, 355, 409 ; revolver, 
355 ; screw propeller, 355 ; sewing machine , 
394: steamboat, 279 ; steam printing press, 
349; telegraph, 375; telephone, 377, 542: 
vulcanized rubber, 355 ; other inventions 
and discoveries, 582. 

Iowa admitted, 396. 

Iron and steel, production of, 128, 164, 581, 
582, and diagram facing 582. 

Ironclads, the, in the Civil War. 464. 

Iroquois Indians, 25, 48, 56 (and map, 20). 

Irrigation, 598. 

Island Is umber Ten taken, 463. 

Jackson, Andrew, at Tohopeka, 299. 

at New Orleans, 302. 

and the Seminoles, 309. 

elected President, 335. 

administration of, 336. 

second election of, 352. 
Jackson, " Stonewall," 457, 467, 469, 479- 
Jamestown, settlement of, 34. 

colony of, 35. 

burned by Bacon, 45. 
Japan, Perry's treaty with, 41S. 
Jasper, Sergeant, at Fort Moultrie, 200. 
Jay, John, 241. 

his treaty with England, 257. 
Jefferson drafts the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 202. 

first Secretary of State, 240. 

leads the Republicans, 246, 247. 

elected President, 266. 

administration of, 267. 

second election of, 277. 
Johnson, Andrew, becomes President, 508. 

administration of, 512. 

impeached, but acquitted, 523, 524. 
Johnston, General A. S., 461. 
Johnston, General Joseph E., 457, 467, 485,. 

490, 495, 496, 504> 506, 518. _ _ 
Joliet and Marquette's expedition, 138. 

voyage down the Mississippi, 138. 
Jones, Paul, 99, 216. 
Judges, the " midnight,'" apimintedby John 

Adams, 266. 

Kansas, struggle for possession of, 414. 

elections, 415. 

Civil War in, 416. 

adopts free state constitution, 417. 

admitted, 428. 

John Brown in, 415. 
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 409, 411. 

passage of, 411. 
Kaskaskia, George Rogers Clark takes, 214. 
"Kearsarge," the, sinks the "Alabama," 502. 
Kentucky, first settlement of, by Boone, 

'■23- 
admitted, 25S. 



INDEX 



xlv 



Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, 264. 

" Know-Nothing " party, the, 407. 

Knox. General, iqq. 

Kosciusko in the Revolution, 192. 

Kossuth in America, 406. 

" Ku-Klux Klan," tlie, 5;,3. 

f.abor, Knights of, 534. 

legislation, 507, 535. 538, 541, 552, 5.S,. 
strikes, 546, 556, 572. 
effect of women on, 599. 
acquisition of rights of, 564. 
troubles at Homestead, 569. 
National Bureau established, 552. 
Lafayette in the Revolution, 193, 212, 223, 
224". 

visit tt) the U. S., 324. 
I /and cessions, 227. 

cheap, 596. 
i.ands, public, 596. 

grants to railways, 530. 
confiscated, 513. 
1/3 Salle explores the Mississippi, 141. 
takes possession of Louisiana, 142. 
Laws made by or for the colonists, 30, 41. 
the Duke's, in New York, 55. 
the Forest, 93. 
Navigation, 42, 43, 93. 
of Trade, 42, 43. 

Fundamental, of Connecticut, 102. 
the judicial, of Moses, 104. 
" Body of Liberties," 78. 
Toleration in Maryland, J09. 
against Catholics(and see Catholics), 110. 
Test Act, III. 
Alolasses Act, 163. 
.Sugar Act, 115, 163. 
Stamp Act, 123., 
Intolerable Acts, the, 186. 
against Quakers (see Quakers), 83. 
in the colonies generally, 156-176. 
Laws of United States. See Statutes. 
Lee, General Charles, in the Revolution, 

192, 204, 205, 213. 
Lee, Richard Henry, in Congress, 2or. 
Lee, General Robert E., 467-469, 471-484, 

492, 493, 506, 507, 518. 
Leisler, Jacob, 58, 59. 
"Leopard," the, and the " Chesajjeake," 

283. 
T/Ctter, Yancey s Scarlet, 42S. 
i/ewis and Clark's expedition, 27^>. 
1/iberty Laws, Personal, 403, 436. 
Library, the first free public, 348, '>i2. 

growth of libraries, 348, 612. 
Lincoln-Douglas campaign, 429. 
Lincoln, election of, 432-434. 
inaugural speech of, 444. 
administration of, 443-507. 
calls for 75,000 volunteers, 446. 
scheme of compensated emancipation, 

472. _ 
emancipates the slaves, 474. 
second election of, 499. 
assassination of, 507. 
T/iterature, colonial, 169,^ 

rise of modern American, 348. 
influence of Helper's " Impending 
Crisis" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 
405. 



" Littfe Belt " beaten. by " President," 290. 
Loans, government, in the Revolution, 195. 

in War of 1812, 292, 293. 

in the Civil War, 451, 452. 

in war with Spain, 590. 
Loans repudiated by some states, 359, 

Confederate government, 452. 
Locomotive, Stephenson's, 346. 

Cooper's, 346. 
I^ondon Company, the, 32. 
Louisburg taken,' 146. 
Louisiana, origin of the name, 141. 

purchase of, 272-275. 

explored by Lewis and Clark, 276. 

admitted, 307. 

progress since the Civil War, 554. 
Lyon, General N., in Missouri, 460. 

Macdonough's victory, 297. 

Machinery, American labor-saving, 408, 542, 

580, 582, 6to. See ln\'entions. 
Macon Act, the, 288. 
Madison elected President, 2S7. 

administration of, 287. 

second election of, 295. 

See Slavery and Secession. 
Magellan names the Pacific, 14. 

voyage of (1519-1521), n, 14. 
Maine liquor law, the, 332. 

settlement of, 95. 

admitted, 31 8. 
" Maine," destruction of the, 588. 
Manufacture of power, the, 610, 6ti. 
Manufactures, 164, 250, 251, 286, 305, 306, 

333, 394, 449,542, 568, 573, 580, 582. 
Maps in the text : 

1. Early trade routes to the Indies, 3. 

2. The Pope's division of the world, 7. 

3. Land discovered by the Cabots, 9, 

4. St. Die, France, 11. 

5. Map of 1515 showing the name Amer- 

ica, 12. 

6. Exploring expeditions of De Soto and 

Coronado, 16. 

7. Grants in Virginia (1606), 33. 

8. Sea to sea charters (1609), 35. 

9. Part of New Netherland, 51. 

10. Dominion of New England, 56. 

1 1. Fort Stanwix treaty line (1768), 61. 

12. New Jersey (1617), 63. 

13. Pilgrim and Puritan emigration, 69. 

14. Part of New England (1620-1630), 71. 

15. Massachusetts (1630), 76. 

16. King Philip's War, 87. 

17. New Hampshire (1623), 94. 
iS. Connecticut (1634), 100. 
K). Maryland (1634), 108. 

20. Rhode Island (1636), 112. 

21. Delaware (1638), 116. 

22. North and South Carolina U663», 1 18. 

23. Settlement of Tennessee and Ken- 

tucky, 122. 

24. Pennsylvania (1681), 124. 

25. (;eorgia (1733), 131- 

26. Braddock's march, 149. 

27. Siege of Quebec, 151. 

28. America after Treaty oi 1763. 153. 
211. Boston and vicinity (1775), 190. 

30. The United States (1790-1800), 249. 

31. 'J'he Louisiana Purchase, 272. 



xlvi 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Maps in the text : 

32. The Florida Purchase, 311. 

33. The Missouri Compromise Act, 316. 

34. Annexation of Texas, 375. 

35. The Oregon Country, 381. 

36. Mexican cessions (1848, 1853), 388. 

37. Lewis and Clark's expedition, Oregon 

and California, 392. 

38. Kansas and Nebraska Act, 412. 

39. Charleston Harbor (!86i), 442. 

40. First advance on Richmond (i8bi), 

457- 

41. Campaign in the West (1862), 462. 

42. Battles around Richmond (.1862), 468. 

43. Battle of Gettysburg (1863), 480. 

44. Country around Vicksburg (1863), 486. 

45. Campaign in Virginia {1S64), 492. 

46. Sherman's march (1864-1865), 500. 

47. First Paciiic Railway, 530. 

48. Battles near Santiago (1898), 592. 
Marion, General, 220. 
Marquette's explorations, 138. 

voyage down the Mississippi, 138. 
Marshall, Chief Justice, 266, 564. 
Maryland settled by Catholics, 107. 

George Calvert, 107. 

charter, 107. 

laws, 107. 

political and religious liberty in, 108. 

toleration, 109. 

Clayborne, 109. 

Captain Ingle, 109. 

Catholics deprived of rights, 1 10. 

becomes a royal province, m. 

Church of England, iii. 
Mason and Dixon's line, 130. 
Mason and Gorges, 94, 95. 
Mason and Slidell, capture of, 460. 
Massachusetts (Plymouth) settled, 71. 

Puritans and Separatists, 67, 68. 

.Separatists escape to Holland, 68. 

Pilgrims and Indians, -ji. 

Pilgrim Republic, 72. 

freedom of worship, 73 . 

government, 72, 73. 

"merchant adventurers," 70, 73. 

Myles Standish, 74. 

united with Massachusetts, 74. 

(Bay Colony), settlement of, 74. 

the Puritan emigration to New Eng- 
land, 75. 

John Endicott, 75. 

charter of, 75. 

John Winthrop, 76. 

settlement of Boston (1630), 76. 

Puritan church, 76. 

Puritan rule in, 76, 77. 

suffrage in, 77. 

establishment of House of Representa- 
tives (1634), 78. 

resistance to the king, 79. 

Roger Williams, 80, 81. 

Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, 81. 

education in colony, 82. 

Boston Latin School (1635), 82. 

Harvard College (1636), 82. 

public schools (1647), 82. 

New England Confederacy (1643), 83. 

George Fox, 83. 

Quaker mis.sionaries in, 84, 85. 



Massachusetts, Eliot's work among the In- 
dians, 86. 

King Philip's War, 86-88. 

the charter, 88, 89. 

the new charter, 91. 

Salem witchcraft, 91, 92. 

Forest Laws, 93. 

Navigation Laws revived, 93 
Massasoit, treaty with Governor Carver, 72. 
Maximilian in Mexico, 528. 
" Mavflower," sailing of the, 71. 
McClellan, General G. B., 456. 

made general commander, 458. 

drills the army, 458. 

campaigns of, 466-470. 
McCormick reaper, the, 355. 
McDowell, General I., 456. 
McKinley, William, President, 578, 579, 

603, 605, 606, 607. 
Meade, General G. G., 480. 
Menendez in Florida, 17, 18. 
" Merrimac,'' the, destroys the "Cumber- 
land" and the "Congress," 464. 

and the " Monitor,", 464. 
Mexican War, the, 382. 

results of, 388, 389. 

See Battles. 
Michigan admitted, 356. 
" Midnight judges," the, 266. 
Millerites, the, or Second Adventists, 360. 
Minnesota admitted, 428. 
Mint, United States, established, 246. 
Minuit, Governor, of New Netherland, 50. 
Minutemen, the, of Revolution, 189. 
Mississippi discovered by De Soto, 15. 

explored by the French, 137. 

voyage by Joliet and Marquette, 138. 

La Salle explores, 141. 

Company, 142. 

free navigation of, 232, 258, 273. 

opening of, in the Civil War, 488. 

deepening the mouth of, 549. 
Mississippi, state of, admitted, 313. 
Missouri Compromise, the first, 317. 

Jefferson's and John Quincy Adams' 
opinions of, 318. 

the second, 318. 

Compromise violated, 319. 

admission of the state, 318. 

Compromise repealed, 410, 412, 413. 
Mobile founded (1702), 142. 

Farragut enters harbor of, 502. 
Modoc War, the, 544. 
Molasses Act, 163. 
Money, Indian wampum, 22. 

tobacco used for, 37. 

corn and cattle used for, 165. 

colonial coin, 165. 

colonial paper, 165. 

paper, of Revolution, 195. 

just after the Revolution, 231. 

decimal system of coinage, 246. 

whisky used for, 254. 

of state banks worthless, 353. 

in the Civil War, 451, 452. 

See U. S. Bank. 

of national banks, 452. 

silver demonetized, 538. 

silver remonetized, 547. 

Bland- Allison Silver Act, 546. 



INDEX 



xlvii 



Money, resumption of specie payments, 548. 

the Sherman Silver Act, 565. 

repeal of Sherman Silver Act, 572. 

demand for free silver, 578. 

See Dollar and Silver. 
" iNIonitor," the, and the " Merrimac," 463. 
Monroe Doctrine, the, 322. 
Monroe elected President, 307 

administration of, 308. 
Montana admitted, 561. 
Montgomery's expedition against Montreal 

and Quebec, 199. 
Morgan, General Daniel, 211, 220, 221. 
Mormons, rise of the, 360. 

emigrate to Utah, 362. 

rebellion of the, 427. 

Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act, 552. 

Edmunds-Tucker Act, 557. 

Church of, vs. U. S. Supreme Court, 
569. 

renounce polygamy, 569. 
Morris, Robert, what he did for Washing- 
ton, 206, 224. 
Morristown, Washington's terrible winter 

at, 219. 
Morse's electric telegi'aph, 375. 
Morton, Dr., discovers etherization, 395. 
Moultrie, Fort, 200. 
Murfreesboro, battle of, 478. 

Napoleon, Decrees of, 282. 
Narvaez, expedition of, 14. 
Nashville, battle of, 501. 
National banks established, 452. 
National Road, the, 378, 320. 
Natural gas, 427. 
Naturalization Act of 1798, 262. 
Navigation Laws, 42. 

revived, 93. 
Navy, first American, 193. 

increase of, 261. 

in 1812, 292 ; (1861-1865), 508. 

our new, 559, 590. 
Nebraska admitted, 521. 
Negro slavery, introduction of, 37, 39, 40. 

unhappy state of the free (1827), 340. 

insurrection in Virginia, 341. 

suffrage in the District of Columbia, 
521. 

slaves emancipated, 474. 

troops in the Civil War, 475, 476. 

See Slavery. 
Negro, the, and reconstruction, 513-516, 517, 
519, 521, 528, 529, 532. 

becomes a lawmaker, 522, 532. 

in Congress, 532. 

the, and the amendments to the Consti- 
tution. 518, 519, 521, 528, 529, 532. 

and the " Ku-Klux Klan," 533. 

and the " Carpetbaggers," 532. 

progress of, since the war, 575. 

See Freedmen and Slavery. 
Neutrality, proclamation of, 253. 
Nevada, discover}' of silver in, 426. 

admitted, 497. 
New Amsterdam (New York), 50. 
New England Confederacy, origin of name, 

83. 
Newfoundland cod fisheries. See Cod 
fisheries. 



New Hampshire, sett^ement of, 94. 

Gorges and Mason, 94, 95. 

religious opinions, 95. 

becomes a royal province, 97. 

Londonderry settled (1719), 97. 

manufacture of linen, 97. 

Dartmouth College, 98. 

dispute between New York and. qS. 

and Vermont, 98. 

Paul Jones, 99. 
New Haven, the republic of, 103. 
New Jersey, the Dutch claim, 63. 

the English take possession of, 63. 

the name, 63. 

Elizabethtown founded (1665), 64. 

Quakers in, 64, 65. 

William Penn in, 64. 

government of, 64, 65. 

religion of, 65. 

Andros in, 65. 

Witherspoon, 66. 
New Mexico, conquest of, 388. 
New Netherland (New York), 47. 
New Orleans founded (1718), 144. 

battle of (18 1 5), 302. 

taken by Farragut, 465. 

Exposition (1884), 553. 
Newspaper, the first, published in America, 
168. 

party journals in 1 792-1794, 247. 

lirst cheap, in America, 348. 

the modem sensational, 349. 
New York, settlement of, by the Dutch, 48. 

patroon system of, 50. 

treatment of Quakers in, 54. 

England takes, 54. 

the ■' Duke's Laws," 55. 

Governor Andros and, 56. 

French attack, 57, 58. 

treatment of Catholics in, 59. 

freedom of the press in, 60. 

protests against taxation without consent 
of the Assembly, 179. 

contest of people with the colonial go\- 
eniors, 61. 

in the Revolution, 1S2, 183, 194, 198, 
202, 203, 210, 211. 

" Greater New York," 583. 
Non-Enumerated Articles, 163. 
Non-Intercourse Act, 286. 
North Carolina, colony of, established, 120. 
North Dakota admitted, 561. 
Northmen, discoveiy of America by the, 1. 

the, and American histor\-, 2. 
Northwest Territor}', cession of, 227. 

ordinance for government of, 227. 
Nullification in Kentucky and Virginia, 204. 

in South Carolina, 344, 345. 

Calhoun defends, 346. 

in Georgia, 331, 34:;. 

Jackson upholds Georgia in, 345. 

in various states, 265. 

in political platforms, 265, 312. 

and Hartford Convention, 300. 

feared by Madison, 343. 

Qflice, restrictions of candidates for, 563. 
Oglethorpe colonizes Georgia, 131. 

and the Spaniards, 135. 
Ohio Company, the, 249. 



xlvii 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Ohio, first settlement of, 249. 

opened, 255. 

admitted to the Union, 271. 
Oil, petroleum, discovered, 427. 
Oklahoma, opening of, 561. 
''Omnibus Bill," the, 401. 
Onate's expedition, 17. 
Orders in Council, British, 282. 
Ordinance for government of the North- 
west Territory (1787), 227. 
Oregon, how we got, 250, 277, 304, 310, 379. 

admitted, 428. 
Osceola, 363. 

Ostend Manifesto, the, 419. 
Otis, James, 179, iSo, 183. 

Pacific, named by Magellan, 14. 

coast explored by Spaniards, 14. 

Balboa discovers the, 14. 

search for the, by the colonists, 34. 

territory acquired on the, 388, 389. 

railway completed, 529. 
effects of, 530, 531. 

cable, 608. 
Paine's " Common Sense," 201. 
Panama Canal, the, 602, 608. 
Panama Canal Purchase Act, 608. 
Pan-American Congress, 561. 

Exposition, 606. 
Panics, business and financial, of 1818-1819, 
310-311. 

1 83 7) 356-370- 

1S57, 425- 

1873, 540, 541- 

1884,553. 

1893- 571- 
Paper money (see Money), 231,451, 452. 
Pardon granted to Confederates, 514, siS, 
521, 525, 534- 

granted to Mormons, 569. 
Paris, Declaration of, (1856), 304. 
'' Parsons Case" (1767), 179. 
Parties, political, rise of (1792), 246. 

in general, 236, 246, 252, 258, 266, 267, 
268, 277, 287, 295, 305, 319, 325, 331. 
335, 352, 356, 366, 373, 374, 395, 406, 
407, 413, 419, 420, 432, 433, 498, 524, 
533, 537, 538, 541, 542, 543, 549, 553, 
559, 569, 570, 578, 603. _ 

^mencan, or Know-Nothmg," 407, 
419. 

"Anti-Dorrites," 369. 

Anti-Federalist, 236, 246. 

Anti-Masonic, 332. 

Anti-Monopolist (note), 543. 

Anti-Renters, 369. 

" Bam-bumers," 396. 

" Bell-Everett," 433. 

■' Black Republicans," 415. 

" Blue Light Federalists," 299. 

■' Broad Gangers " (note), 537. 

Constitutional Union, 432. 

" Copperheads," 453, 469, 470, 480. 

Democratic, 246, 331, 352, 356. 

Democratic- Republican, 246, 252, 258, 

266, 30S, 325, 327. 
" Dorrites," 369. 

" Farmers' Alliance," 541. 

Federalist, 234, 236, 246, 252, 258, 266, 

267, 26S. 



Parties, Free Soil, 396, 406. 

Free Suffrage, 369. 

Free State, 414. 

"Gold Democrats," 578. 

" Grangers," 541. 

" Greenback," 542. 

" Half-Breeds " (note), 549. 

" Hunkers," 396. 

Independent, 542. 

Independent Republicans, 553. 

" Know-Nothing," 407, 419. 

Labor, 537, 612. 

Labor Reform, 537. 

Liberal Republicans, 537. 

Liberty, 366, 373, 396. 

" Locofocos," 356. 

" Mugwumps " (note), 553. 

National Democrats, 578. 

National Republicans, 246, 331, 352. 

" Peace Democrats," 498. 

People's Party, 570, 578. 

" Populists," 541, 578. 

Prohibitionist, 537. 

" Quids," 2S6. 

Radical Republicans, 49S. 

Reform Democrats, 356. 

Republican (first), 246. 

Republican (second), 246, 414. 

Socialist, 612. 

Socialist Labor, 612. 

" Sons of the South," 414. 

" Stalwarts " (note), 549. 

" Straight-Out Democrats," 537. 

"War Democrats," 498, 513. 

Whig, 246, 331, 356, 407. 

See too Election and Platform. 
Patent Office Centennial, 568. 
Patroons, the, 50. 
Peace party, the, in the Civil War, 453, 469, 

470, 480. 
Pemberton, General J. C.,at Vicksburg, 486. 
Penn, William, 64. 

purchases Delaware, 117. 

Pennsylvania gi^anted to, 124. 

treaty with the Indians, 126. 
Pennsylvania, grant of, to Penn, 124. 

charter of, 125. 

" Frame of Government," 125. 

" Great Law," 126. 

Philadelphia founded (1682), 126. 

treaty with the Indians, 126. 

growth of Philadelphia, 127. 

Quakers in, 127, 128. 

iron and coal mines in, 127. 

" Mason and Dixon's Line," 130. 
Pensions, Dependent, Bill vetoed, 558. 

passed, 565 (see too 510). 
Perry's victory on Lake Erie, 296. 

Commodore, treaty with Japan, 418. 
Personal Liberty Laws, 403, 436. 
Petersburg, siege of, 493. 

surrender of, 506. 
Petroleum discovered in Pennsylvania, 427. 
Philadelphia founded, 126. 
Philippines annexed, 593, 594. 

the, in 1901, 603, 604. 

the Supreme Court and the, 605. 
Philip's, King, War, 86-88. 
Pierce elected President, 406. 

administration of, 408-421, 



INDEX 



xli: 



Pilgrims, or Separatists, the, 67-69. 

leave England for Holland, 68. 

sail for America, 70, 71. 

reasons for emigrating to America, 68, 
69. 

draw up a compact, 71. 

settle at Plymouth, 71. 

and the Indians, 72. 

mode of government, 72, 73. 
Pitt, William (Lord Chatham), 151. 

management of the French and Indian 
War, 151. 

defends the resistance of the colonists, 
1S2. 
Pittsburg, origin of name of, 151. 
Platform, first presidential, 352. 

See too Election. 
Plymouth Colony founded, 71. 

absorbed by Massachusetts, 74. 

See Pilgrims. 
Plymouth Company chartered, ;,i, 32. 
" Pocket vetoes," sss- 
Political corruption in 1876, 540. 
Political Disabilities Act, 534. 
Polk elected President, 374. 

administration of, 378-397. 
Polygamy, Mormon, 361. 

'the Edmunds Act against, 552. 

the Edmunds-Tucker Act against, 557. 

condemned by the U. S. Supreme Court, 

5^9- 

renounced by the Mormons, 569. 
Ponce de Leon and Florida, 13. 
Pontiac's conspiracy, 152. 
Pony express to California, 529. 
Pope, General John, 463, 468, 469. 
Pope, the division of the world by the, 7. 

the, and the Civil War, 454. 
Popham Colony, Maine, 95. 
" Popular Sove'reignty " propo.sed by Clay, 

363. 

advocated by Cass, 397. 

ridiculed by Calhoun, 397. 

advocated by Douglas, 397, 429, 430. 

in Clay's Compromise Measures, 399. 

applied to Utah and New Mexico, 409. 
to Kansas and Nebraska, 410-414. 

extreme Southern men oppose, 411. 

Republican party condemn, 420. 
Population in 1763, 156. 

1775, 192 ; 1900, 603. 

1790, 248. 

i8co, 268. 

i860, 449. 

1890, 567. 

no frontier line of, 567. 
" Populists," the, in politics, 570. 
Port Hudson taken, 488. 
Porter, Admiral D. D., at New Orleans, 
466. 

at Vicksburg, 4S5. 

at Fort Fisher, 503. 

at City Point, 505. 
Porto Rican Government Act, 601. 
Porto Rico annexed, 593. 
Portsmouth, N.H., settled, 94. 
Postage in colonial times, 166. 

cheap (1845-18S3), 389- 

stamps introduced (1847), 389. 

postal eards introduced, 539. 



Potato, discovery of the, 20. 
Power, growth of productive, 580. 

the manufacture of, 610-61 1. 
Presidential Succession Act, 557. 
Press, freedom of the, restricted in tlie col- 
onies, 168. 

established by Zenger, 60, 168. 

defined by Judge McKean, 263. 

vs. the Sedition Act, 263, 264. 
" Prince Henry the Navigator," 4. 
Printing press, the, in the colonies, 60, 127, 
168. 

Hoe's steam cylinder, 349. 
Prisoners of War of the Revolution, 477. 

of the Civil War, 476. 
Privateers in the Revolution, 193. 

in the War of 1812, 295. 

Confederate, in the Civil War, 451. 

and Declaration of Paris, 304. 
Proclamation Line, 154. 
Progi-ess of the United States (1789-1889), 
562-565. 

illustrated by the manufacture of power, 
610-611. 

General survey of, 612. 
Prohibition in Maine and other states, 332. 
Providence settled, 112. 
Public Credit Act, 529. 
Public schools established in the colonies, 

82, 104, 171. 
Puritans, origin of the, 67. 

vs. Separatists, 68. 

emigration to New England, 75. 

religious ideas of the, 67. 

the, settle Massachusetts, 75. 

their colony, 75. 

mode of government, 76, 77. 

the " freeman's" oath, 77. 

purpose of the, 79. 

in Maryland, 108, 109. 
Putnam, General Israel, 190, 197, 203. 

General Rufus, 200. 

Quakers. See Friends. 
Quebec, the French at, 41, 137. 

Phips' expedition against, 145. 

expedition of 171 1 against, 145. 

taken by Wolfe, 151. 

Montgomery's expedition against, 199. 

Arnold's expedition against, 199. 
Quebec Act, the, 180. 
"Quids," the, 286. 

Railway, the first in America, 346. 
. effects of, 347, 379> 596- 

destruction of, in the Civil War, 500. 

the first transcontinental, 529. 
effects of, 530, 531, 596. 

mileage of, and capital invested in, 347. 

electric, 378. 
Raleigh sends expedition to America, 19. 

attempts to colonize, 20. 

what he accomplished, 20. 
Reaper, the, and the mower, 355, 409. 
Reconstruction begun, 513, 514. 

Johnson's plan of, 515. 

Congress' plan of, 515, 516. 

Act, 522. 

Congress and the President, 515, 516, 
521, 522. 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Reconstruction completed, 531. 
Redemptioners, 162. 
Referendum in South Dakota, 5S5. 
Regicides, the, 104. 
Religion, great revival of, 170. 
Religious liberty for all persons in Rhode 
Island, 114. 

for all Christians in Maryland, 109. 

for all believers in God in Pennsylvania, 
126. 

Congress not to interfere with, 242. 

not recognized by the Puritans, 75, 79, 83. 

degrees of, in the colonies generally, 
167, 168. 

America first to establish complete, 114, 
612. 
Remonetization of silver. See Dollar and 

Silver. 
Removals from office, Jackson's, 336. 
Republican party, first of that name, 246. 

modern, origin of, 414. 

See Parties. 
Resolutions by Kentucky and Virginia, 264. 
Resumption of specie payment, 541, 542, 

548. 
Revenue of the United States, 1790 7's. 1897, 

241. 
Revere's, Paul, ride, 187, 189. 
Review, grand military, at the close of the 

Civil War, 516. 
Revolution, indications of the coming, 174. 

chief cause of the, 178. 

'' Writs of Assistance," '179. 

Stamp Act, 180. 

Patrick Henry's resolutions, 181. 

Stamp Act Congress, 181. 

" Sons of Liberty," 182. 

Pitt defends the colonies, iSj. 

the Townshend Law, 182. 

" Boston Massacre," 183. 

Governor Tryon, 1S4. 

destruction of the " Gaspee." 184. 

Committees of Correspondence formed, 
184. 

tax on tea, 185. 

Boston " Tea Party," the, 185. 

■' four intolerable acts," 186. 

unity of the colonies, 187. 

First Continental Congress, 1S7. 

Parliament retaliates, 188. 

action of Massachusetts, 189. 

General Gage's exp-dition, 189. 

battles of. See Battles. 

Second Continental Congress, 191. 

Gage's proclamation, 191. 

W^ashington made commander in chief, 
191. _ 

opposing armies in, iqi, 192. 

American navy and privateers, 193. 

foreign aid in the, 192, 193. 

Loyalists, or Tories, 194. 

finances of the, 195-197. 

Washington takes command, 198. 

expedition against Canada, igg. 

Arnold's expedition, 199. 

Paine's " Common Sense," 201. 

Declaration of Independence, 201. 

Howe offers pardon to "rebels," 203. 

W^ashington driven out of New York, 
204. 



Revolution, retreat across New Jersey, 205. 

Robert Morris in the, 206. 

plans of Lord Germain, 207. 

Burgoyne's expedition, 208-211. 

treaties with France, 211, 212. 

England sends peace commissioners, 
213. 

Lee's treachery, 213. 

prospects of the (1778), 214. 

expedition of George Rogers Clark, 214. 

Captain Paul Jones, 216. 

Arnold's treason, 218. 

Greene, General, takes command in the 
South, 220. 

Women of the, 221. 

retreat of Cornwallis, 222. 

Cornwallis ravages Virginia, 223. 

Cornwallis retires to Yorktown, 223. 

fall of Yorktown, 224. 

effect in England, 225. 

peace declared, 225. 
Revolver, Colt's, 355. 
Rhode Island, settlement of, 112. 

government of, 113. 

charter of, 114. 

entire religious liberty in, 1 14. 

spirit of independence in, 115. 
Ribaut, Jean, 17, 18. 

Rice, cultivation of, in South Carolina, 121. 
Richmond, the Confederate capital, 506. 

capture of, 508. 
Right of search. See Search. 
" Ring, Boss Tweed," the, 540. 

the Whisky, 540. 

the Erie, 540. 
Riots, draft, in the Civil War, 480. 

strike at Pittsburg, 546. 

strike at Chicago, 556, 573. 
Road, the Cumberland, or National, 327, 329, 
Roads, colonial, 165. 
Rolfe, John, 36. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 603, 606. 

elected Vice President, 603. 

becomes President, 606. 

elected President, 611. 
Rosecrans, General W. S., 477, 489. 
"Rule of 1756," 281. 

St. Augustine founded (1565), 18. 
St. Louis included in the Louisiana pur- 
chase, 274. 276, 315. 

growth of, 609. 

Exposition, 609. 
Salem, Mass., settled, 75. 

witchcraft, 91, 92. 
Samoan Islands, 600. 

San Domingo, attempt to annex, 535, 536. 
Sanitary Commission in the Civil War, 454, 
Santa Fe founded (1605), 17. 
Savannah settled, 133. 

taken by the British, 216. 

taken by Sherman,. 501. 
" Savannah," the, first ocean steamship, 312. 
Schenectady attacked by savages, 58. 
School lands, 271, 272, 330. 
Schools, public, in ^lassachusetts, 82. 

Boston Latin School, 82. 

established in Connecticut, 104. 

established in New York, New Jersey, 
and Pennsylvania, 171. 



INDEX 



School, Governor Berkeley on, in Virginia, 

at the South, 171, 575. 
in the West, 330. 

See Public Schools and Education. 
Schuyler, General P., 199, 208, 210. 
Scotch-Irish emigrants, 46, 97, 157. 
Scott, General W., in War of 1812, 292, 298. 
in the war with Mexico, 383-386. 
in the Civil War, 445, 455, 456. 
retires, 458. 
Search, right of, claimed by England, 282, 

290, 291, 303, 304. 
Secession or disunion, fears of (17S3-1787), 

230. 
threats of, in the Southwest (17S7), 233. 
fears of disunion in 1792, 251. 
Washington's farewell address on (1796), 

258. 
the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions 

(1798-1799), 264. 
fears of, in 1800, 270. 
Ames and Jefferson on, 270. 
looked on as probable, 279. 
plot of ultra northern Federalists (1803), 

275. 
Burr's conspiracy (1804), 280. 
feared by John Quincy Adams (1809), 

286. 
threatened by Quincy (181 1), 275. 
the Hartford Convention accused of 

plot of (1814), 301. 
the "Richmond Enquirer" condemns as 

treason (1814), 301. 
the South threatens, in 1819, 316, 318. 
Webster on danger of, in 1828, 335. 
Hayne defends the right of (1830), 338. 
Webster denies the right of (1830), 339. 
Calhoun declares " Liberty dearer than 

Union " (1830), 339. 
Jackson stands by the Union (1830), 

339- 
threatened by South Carolina (1832), 345. 
feared by John Quincy Adams (i833),343. 
feared by Madison (1833), 343. 
Jackson's attitude toward (1833), 344, 

345- 
Jackson predicts (1833), 346. 
advocated by Garrison's "Liberator" 

(1S43), 343. 
annexation of Texas (1843), 37i- 
fears of, in 1844, 372. 
foreshadowed by split in the churches 

(1845), 400. 
agitation of, in 1846, 390, 391. 
threatened by southern members of 

Congress in 1849, 398. 
Calhoun on, in 1850, 400. 
Webster on, in 1850, 400, 401. 
threatened, in 1854, 412, 413. 
Rufus Choate on, in 1856, 420. 
Governor Wise on, in 1856, 420. 
threatened by the South in 1857, 424. 
foreshadowed by Yancey's " Scarlet 

Letter" (1858), 428. 
Lincoln on (1858), 429. 
effect of the John Brown raid on (1859), 

431- 
predicted by Alexander H. Stephens 

(i860), 432. 



Secession or disunion. South Carolina pre- 
pares to secede (i860), 434. 

Alexander H. Stephens protests against 
(i860), 435. 

Pollard on action of South Carolina 
(i860), 435. 

South Carolina secedes (i860), 436. 

reasons for (i860), 436, 437. 

Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, 
Louisiana, and Texas secede (1860- 
1861), 437- 

Mississippi on the object of (1861), 437. 

why Georgia seceded (1861), 437. 

slavery' the true cause of, 439. 

the war of, begun (1861), 446. 

secession of \'irginia, Arkansas, North 
Carolina, and Tennessee (1861), 448. 

mistakes of the secessionists, 448. 

object of the war, 455. 

the principle of, destroyed, 511. 

the New South and, 518. 
Sedition Law, the, 263. 
Seminole War, first, 309. 

second, 363. 
Separatists, the, or Pilgrims vs. the Puri- 
tans, 68. 

escape to Holland, 68. 

why they wished to emigrate to Amer- 
ica, 68. 

they emigrate and settle Plymouth, 70, 7 1 . 

See Pilgrims. 
Sevier, John, 123. ^^„^ 

Seward, William H., 399, 401, 411, 41^^247" 

443) 445> 461, 471, 516. 
Sewing machine invented, 355. 
Shays' Rebellion, 232. 
Shenandoah Valley, Jackson in, 469. 

Sheridan's raid in, 494. 
Sheridan, General P. H., raid in the Shenan- 
doah Valley, 494. 

ride to Cedar Creek, 495. 

at battle of Winchester, 495. 

cuts off supplies from Richmond, 506. 
Sherman, General W. T., at Pittsburg Land- 
ing, 463- 

at Vicksburg, 478. 

at Chattanooga, 489. 

raid on Meridian, 490. 

in the " hammering campaign," 491. 

advance of, on Atlanta, 495. 

takes Atlanta, 496. 

march to the sea, 499. 

takes Savannah, 501. 

march northward, 503. 

surrender of Johnston to, 507. 
Silver, scarcity of, in 17S6, 231. 

first coinage of, 246. 

found in Nevada and Colorado, 426. 

demonetized, 538. 

remonetized, 547. 

Bland-Allison Act, 547. 

the Sherman Silver Act, 565. 

repeal of the Sherman Act, 572. 

demand for free, 57S. 

See Dollar and Coinage. 
Six Nations, or Iroquois. See Indians. 
Slavery introduced into America, 39. 

spreads into all the colonies, 39. 

attempts to check importation of slaves, 



lii 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Slavery, remonstrance of Quakers against, in 
1688, 127. 
Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin 

on, 40, 162. 
Wesley and Whitefield on, 134. 
introduced into Georgia, 135. 
in the colonies, effects of, 161, 162. 
excluded from the Northwest Territory 

(1787), 315. 
debate in the Constitutional Convention 

on, 234, 235, 236. 
first Congressional debate on, 248. 
importation of slaves prohibited, 248, 

251, 313- 
effects of the cotton gin on, 251. 
extension of, opposed, 275. 
effect of purchase of Louisiana on, 275. 
discussion of the western extension of, 

3'2, 313- 
Judge Story, on the slave trade, 313. 
how it divided the country, 313. 
a menace to the Union, 313, 318, 343. 
Benton on the extension of, 315. 
the Missouri Compromise, 317-319. 
Clay and Channing on, 340, 341. 
Garrison attacks, 341. 
the Nat Turner insurrection, 341. 
Clay and Calhoun defend, 343. 
J. Q. Adams on, 343. 
Emerson and Seward on, 343, 344. 
formation of Abolition societies, 342 
it endangers the Union, 343. 
Jackson on, 345. 

Petitions against, in Congress, 355. 
in the District of Columbia, 357. 
Case of Prigg vs. Pennsylvaiiia, 371. 
agitation in Congress, 362. 
and the " gag rule " in Congress, 355, 

362. 
and the annexation of Texas, 371-374. 
and the Wilmot Proviso, 390, 391. 
Calhoun on, 363, 390. 
the question of, in 1850, 399, 402. 
the fugitive-slave law of 1793, 248. 
decision of U. S. Supreme Court respect- 
ing. 37i- 
Van Buren on, 357. 
the new fugitive-slave law (1850), 402, 

403- 
local and accidental, 315. 
no interference with, 357. 
Personal Liberty Laws vs., 403. 
enforcement of, 403, 404. 
enforcement of the Fugitive-Slave Act, 

404. 
the " Underground Railroad," 404. 
slaves rescued, 248, 404, 405. 
slaves returned to, 404. 
" Uncle Tom's Cabin," 405. 
Helper's " Impending Crisis," 405. 
Kansas- Nebraska Act, 409-414. 
struggle in Kansas over, 414-418. 
Sumner denounces, 417. 
assault on Sumner, 418. 
Republican party and, 420. 
Dred Scott decision, 421-424. 
Lincoln and Douglas debates on, 429. 
John Brown's raid, 430. 
the evil wrought by, 440, 441. 
secession and, 437, 441. 



Slavery called " the corner stone of our Re- 
publican edifice " (183-5), 344- 
the corner stone of the Southern Con- 
federacy, 438. 
the true cause of the War of Secession, 

439- 
Butler, General, and the "contra- 
bands," 472. 
the Emancipation Proclamation, 474. 
tlie constitutional amendments and, 518, 

520, 532. 
progress of the South since the aboli- 
tion of, 554, 574. 
See Abolitionists ; Anti-Slavery ; Seces- 
sion ; the Negro ; the Fugitive-Slave 
Act. 
Smith, Captain John, 34. 
Socialism, tendencies to, 570, 578, 581. 
Socialistic experiments, 360. 
" Sons of Liberty," 182, 187. 
Soto, De. See De Soto. 
South, the, progress of, since the Civil War, 

South Carolina. See Carolina. 

nullification in, 344. 

secession of, 436. 

negro rule in, 533. 
South Dakota, 561, 584. 
Spain's possessions in America, 7, 13, 30, 

258, 585. 
Spaniards, the, in Florida, 13-18, 135, 309, 

310. 
Specie circular, the, 354. 

payments, resumption of, 538,542, 548. 
Speculation in land, 353, 357. 

in railways, 540. 
Spiritualism, rise of, 362. 
" Spoils System," the, 337, 545, 551. 

See Civil Service Reform. 
Spoliation claims, the first, 261. 

the second, 338. 
Squatter sovereignty, 397. 
Stagecoach to California, 529. 
Stamp Act, the, proposed, 180. 

passage of the act, 181. 

the Stamp Act Congress, i8i. 

Pitt on the, 182. 

the, repealed, 182. 
Standish, Myles, Captain, 71. 

goes to England, 74. 
" Star of the West " fired on, 437. 
" Star-Spangled Banner," the (song of), 299. 
Stark, General, 97. 

State Rights or State Sovereignty, doctrine 
of, 264, 268, 338, 345, 436, 511. 

See Secession. 
States admitted (see names of), 577. 
Statutes, United States, Tariff Act (1789). 
See Tariff. 

Tonnage Act (1789), 241. 

National Capital Act (1700), 244. 

Excise Act (1791), 241. 

Bank Act (1791), 245. 
See Bank. 

Mint Act (1792), 246. 

Naturalization Act (1798), 262. 

Alien Act (1798), 262. 

Sedition Act (1798), 263. 

National Road Act (1806), 278. 

Non-Importation Act (1807), 283. 



INDEX 



liii 



Statutes, United States, Embargo Act (1807), 
284. 

Force Act (i8og), 285. 
Non-Intercourse Act (1809), 286. 
Macon Act (1810), 288. 
Missouri Compromise Act (1820), 317. 
Crawford Tenure of Office Act (1820), 

319- 
Force Act (1832), 345. 
First Independent Treasury Act (1840), 

359- 
Second Independent Treasury Act 

(1846), 359. 
Compromise Measures Acts (J850), 402. 
Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), 411-413. 
Confiscation Act (1861), 472. 
Territorial Act (1862), 390. 
Homestead Act (1862), 596. 
Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act 

(1863), 453. 
National Banks Act (1863), 452. 
Freedman's Bureau Act (1865), 513, 519. 
Tenure of Office Act (1867), 521. 
Military Reconstruction Act (1S67), 522. 
Public Credit Act (1869), 529. 
Force Act (1871), 534, 572. 
Removal of Political Disabilities Act 

(1872), 534- 
Comage Act (1873), 53S. 
Salary Act (1873), 539. 
Resumption Act (1875), 542. 
Bland- Allison Silver Act (18781, 547- 

548. 
Civil Service Reform Act (1S82), 551. 
Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act (1882), 

552. 
Chinese Exclusion Acts (1882-1904), 

552, 557- 

Alien Contract Labor Act (1884). 552. 

Presidential Succession Act (18S6), 557. 

Electoral Count Act (1887), 557. 

Interstate Commerce Act (1887), 557. 

Edmunds-Tucker Anti-Polygamy Act 
(1887), 557- 

Dependent Pension Act {,1890), 558, 565. 

Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890), 
565- 

Porto Rican Tariff Act (1900), 601. 

Gold Standard Act (1900), 601. 

Irrigation Act (1902), 598. 

Panama Canal Act (1902), 60S. 
Steamboat, Fitch's, 279. 

Fulton's, 279. 

effects of the, 280. 
Steam engine, first, 165. 
Steamship, the first ocean, 312. 

first line established, 365. 
Stephens, Alexander H., 432, 435, 438, 5 
Steuben, Baron, 193. 
Strike, great railroad, 546. 

the Pullman, or Chicago, 573. 

at Homestead, 569. 

great coal, 607. 
Stuyvesant, Governor, 52. 
Suffrage in colonial times, 38, 44, 53, 55, 56, 
59> 72, 73, 77, 78, 79, 89, 100, 103, 113, 119, 
120, 126. 

Naturalization Act (1798), 262. 

Australian ballot, 560. 

manhood, 268, 271. 



Suffrage, restriction of ^ 238, 584. 

extension of, 238, 258, 268, 271, 312, 563. 
negro, granted, 519-521, 532- 
woman, demanded, 391. 
woman, granted in certain states, 561. 
action of Southern States on, 584. 
Sugar Act, 115. 
Sumner, Charles, 402. 

assault on, 417. 
Sumter, Fort, taken, 445. 
Supreme Court, the U. S., organized, 241. 
importance of, 241. 
decisions of Chief Justice Marshall, 2&>, 

331, 563- 
See table facing page 266. 
decision of, on the U. S. Bank, 312, 350. 
respecting Fugitive-Slave Act of 

1793, 371- 
in the Dred Scott case, 421. 
on the states and the Union, 511, 

516, 522, 523, 563. 
on legal tender, 543. 
respecting the Mormons, 552, 569. 
respecting the income tax, 574. 
respecting new temtories, 605. 
Surplus, distribution of the, 354. 

Tariff, the first (1789), 241. 

of 1812, 241. 

of 1816, 306. 

of 1824, 323. 

" of Abominations " (1S2S1, 333. 

of 1832, 344. 

South Carolina nullifies the, 345. 

and nullification, 345, 346. 

the " Compromise," of 1S33, 346. 

of 1S42, 375. 

the Walker, of 1846, 38^ 

the Morrill, or war ^anff of 1861, 3S9, 
451. 

the war, of 1862, 451. 

the war, of 1864, 451. 

of 1883, 552. 

the Mills Bill (1885), 555. 

the McKinley (1890), 566. 

the Wilson-Gorman (1894), 574. 

the Dingley (1897), 57^. 

Porto Rican, the, 571. 

in politics, 577. 
Taxation, England claims the right to tax 
the colonies, 125, 182. 

the colonies protest against, 178, 179. 

Sugar Act, 180. 

the Stamp Act, resistance to, 181, 182. 

the tax on tea, 185. 

the chief cause of the Revolution, 178. 

under the Confederation, 230, 231. 

first, under the Constitution, 241. 

the income tax, 574. 

decision against income tax, 574- 

war tax (1898), 590. 
Taylor, General, in Mexican War, 3S2, 383. 

elected President, 396. 

administration of, 397. 

death of, 402. 
Tecumseh's conspiracy, 289. 
Telegraph, the electric, 375. 

Atlantic cable, 525, 526. 

Pacific cable, 608. 

wireless, the, 608. 



liv 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



Telephone, the, 377. 
Temperance cause, the, 332. 
Tennessee admitted, 258. 

readmitted, 520. 
Tenure of G: :e Act, the Crawford, 319. 

of 1867, 521. 
Territories, the first ceded to the U.S., 227. 

the ordinance for the government of the 
Northwest Territory, 227. 

slavery abolished in the (1862), 473. 

See Slavery; Louisiana; Florida; Cali- 
fornia; Alaska. 
Test Act, III. 
Texas, emigration to, 320. 

annexation of, 371-374. 

and the Mexican War, 381, 382. 

admitted, 396. 
Thomas, General G. H., 489, 501. 
Ticonderoga, Ethan Allen takes, igi. 
Tilden-Hayes, the presidential contest, 543. 
Tobacco in Virginia, 20. 

cultivation of, begun, 36. 

effects of, 37. 
Toleration, religious. See Religious Liberty. 
Toleration Act, log. 
Tonnage Act, 241. 
Tories of the Revolution, 194. 
Town meeting, government by, 72, 78, 159. 
Townshend Revenue Act, 179. 
Trade with the Indies, 3. 

with the West Indies, 240, 304, 3^3, 
338. 

effect of the embargo on, 284. 

renewal of, with England (1809), 288. 

" free, and sailors' rights " (1812), 303. 

prosperous foreign, 249, 277, 282, 582, 
610. 

on the Ohio (1796), 249. 
Treasury, independent, proposed, 359. 

established, 389. 
Treaty of England and France (1763'), 153. 

Fort Stanwix, with the Iroquois (1768), 
62. 

with France (1778), 211. 

of peace (1783), 226. 

the Jay (1795), 256. 

with Algiers (1795), 257. 

with Spain (1795), 258. 

of Ghent (1814), 303. 

commercial (1824-1829), 333. 

Webster-Ashburton (1842), 370. 

Oregon (1846), 381. 

with Mexico (1848), 388. 

with Japan (1854), 418. 

Burlingame, with China (1868), 418. 

Washington (1871), 535. 

Arbitration (Venezuela) (1896), 577. 

Arbitration, general pending (1897), 577. 

with Spain (1899), 593. 
" Trent " affair, the, 460. / 

Tripoli, war with, 278. // 

Trusts, 580, 581. 
Turner, Nat, insurrection, 341. 
Tyler, laecomes President, 367. 

contest with Congress, 368. 

his numerous vetoe^6lP\ __ ■< 

labors for the anne>B^oJ^f Texas, 3;j|t 

" Uncle Tom's Cabin," 405. 

" Underground Railroad," the, 404. 



Union, the, how formed, 201, 226-229, 2^2- 
236, 238. 

vs. "State Rights," 229, 240, 264, 265, 

338, 345- 
See Secession. 

what Daniel Webster did for the, 339. 
Jackson's determination to maintain, 

345- 
how threatened by slavery. See Slavery. 
the war for, inevitable, 439. 
what the Civil War decided respecting 

the, 511. 
United States, independence declared, 201. 
acknowledged by France, 212. 
acknowledged by Great Britain, 226. 
Confederation, the Articles of, 226, 227, 

228. 
Constitution of, framed and adopted, 

233-236. 
government of, organized (1789), 237, 

238- 

Revolutionary debt, provisions for pay- 
ing, 243. 

first census (1790), 248. 

first tariff, 241. 

bank of, the first, 245. 
the second, 305. 

mint established, first coinage, 246. 

the, in 1801, 268. 

material obstacles to union, 270. 

acquisition of territory, 272, 310, 374, 
380, 388. 

the first steamboat, 279. 

the Erie Canal, 328. 

the first railway, 346. 

the first telegraph, 375. 

the first system of National Banks 
established, 452. 

wars of. See Wars. 

treaties of. See Treaties. 

political parties in. See Parties. 

slavery in. See Slavery. 

War of Secession and results, 446, 510. 

Civil Service Reform in, 577. 

growth of (see Population), 580. 

progress of, generally (1789-1S89), 562. 

no frontier line in iSgo, 567. 

the, at the present time, 580, 581, 5^, 
598. 

wealth of the, 562, 598, 612. 
Universities. See Colleges and Education. 
Utah, Mormons in (see Mormons), 362. 

admission of, 577. 

Van Buren, elected President, 356. 

administration of, 356-367. 
Van Rensselaer estates, 51. 
Venezuela question, the, 576. 
Vermont admitted (1791), 258. 
Vermont organized, 98. 

Vespucius, Americus, voyages of (1499- 
1503), 10. , r , . 

America named from (1507), 10, 11. 
Veto, Jackson's use of the, 351, 354. 

Tyler's use of the, 368. 
f Johnson's use of the, 519-522. 
k Hayes' use of the, 547. 

Cleveland's use of the, 557, 558. 
Vicksburg, siege and capture of, 486, 488. 
Vigilance Committee in California, 393. 



INDEX 



Iv 



Vinland, 2. 

Virginia, Raleigh sends expedition to, ig. 

named by Queen Elizabeth, ig. 

colony planned, 31. 

charter, first (1606), 32. 
second (1609), 35. 
third (161 2), 36. 

settlement of, at Jamestown, 34. 

government of, 34, 38. 

Catholics not to enter, 35. 

tobacco, cultivation of, 36. 

House of Burgesses established, 38. 

slavery introduced into, 3g. 

importation of women, 40. 

loses part of her territory, 41. 

loses all of her territory, 43. 

Cavaliers in, 42. 

Navigation Laws hurt trade of, 42. 

Bacon Rebellion in, 44. 

spirit of independence in, 46. 

R. H. Lee of, moves Declaration of 
Independence, 201. 
" Virginia," the (or " Merrimac "), and the 

" Monitor," 464. 
Vote, right to, restricted in colonial times, 

See Suffrage and Ballot. 

War, the Pequot (1637), loi. 
King Philip's (1675), 86-88. 
with France for the possession of Amer- 
ica (1689-1736), 144-146. 

results of, 153. 
King William's (1689), 144. 
Queen Anne's (1702), 145. 
King George's (1744), 146. 
French and Indian (1754), 146. 
Revolutionary, the (1775), 178. 
with the Ohio Indians (1794), 254. 
with France (1798), 261. 
with Tripoli (1801), 278. 
with Tecumseh (181 1), 28g. 
with England (1812), 291. 

American army and navy in, 292. 

New England's opposition to the, 
299. 

results of the, 304, 305. 
with the Creeks (1814), 2g9. 
First Seminole (1818), 309. 
Black Hawk (1832), 34g. 
Second Seminole (1837), 363. 
Mexican (1846), 382. 
the Civil (1861), 444. 

cost of the, 59g. 

loss of life in, 509. 

results of, 510. 
Modoc (1872), 544- 
Sioux (1876), 544. 
with Spain (1898), 585-593. 
Warren, General Joseph, ig8. 
Washington sent a messenger to the French, 
147. 
his interest in the West, 248. 
accomp.mies Braddock, 149. 
helps take Fort Duquesne, 148. 
made commander in chief, 191. 
takes command of army, 198. 
enters Boston, 199. 
at New York, 203. 
saves Putnam and his army, 204. 



Washington retreats northward, 205. 
crosses the Delaware, 205. 
victory at Trenton, 205. 

Princeton, 206. 
worries Howe, 207. 
at Brandywine, 208. 
at Germantown, 208. 
at Valley Forge, 208. 
at Monmouth, 213. 
at Yorktown, 224. 

and the Constitutional Convention, 233. 
elected President, 238. 
inauguration of, 239. 
Cabinet organized, 240. 
the Supreme Court organized, 241. 
the first tariff, 241. 
second election of, 252. 
abuse of, 253. 
farewell address of, 258. 
death of, 265. 

centennial of inauguration, 561. 
Washington the national capital, 244, 266. 

taken by the British, 298. 
Washington admitted, 561. 
Wautauga, settlement on the, 123. 
Wayne, " Mad Anthony," in the Revolu- 
tion, 216. 

victory over the Indians, 255. 
Wealth, growth of national, 598, 612. 
Weather Bureau established, 535. 
Webster on the Constitution and the Union, 
338. 

our debt to, 339. 
and the Ashburton Treaty, 370. 
and the fugitive-slave law, 403. 
his horror of secession, 400, 401. 
Webster, Noah, dictionary of, 348. 
Wesley, John and Charles, 134. 
West, Benjamin, the artist, 172. 
West, colonial land claims in the, 25, 32, 75, 
105, 118, 131, 156, 227. 
French exploration of the (1615-1673), 

137, 138, 140, 141. 
the French build forts in the (1695- 

1720), 144. 
Governor Spotswood and the, 122, 

146. 
England excludes the colonists from 

the, 186. 
emigration to the, 123, 151, 249, 268, 270, 

280, 307, 32g, 330, 392, 414, 531. 
first settlements made in the, 123, 151, 

249. 
the Ohio Company and the, 147, 249. 
Marietta and Cincinnati founded, 249. 
Washington's interest in the, 147, 248. 
Braddock 's expedition, 149. 
the, at the end of the war with France 

(1763), 153, 154- 
Conspiracy of Pontiac in the, 152. 
Indian Wars in the, 152, 254, 289, 349, 

544. See Indians, 
growth of the, 123, 151, 249, 259, 268, 
270, 280, 307, 330, 349, 393, 394, 409, 
414, 415^530, 531, 542, 567, 576, 595, 
596, 6og. 
Clark's conquest of the Northwest, 

214, 215. 
the, and the Articles of Confederation, 
226. 



Ivi 



THE STUDENT'S AMERICAN HISTORY 



West, the, and the Treaty of Peace (.17^3). 
226. 

Ordinance for the government of the 

Northwest Territory, 227. 
states formed from the Northwest Terri- 
tory, 228. 
Spain and the Mississippi, 232, 258, 270, 

274. 
threats of secession in the Southwest 

(1787). 233- 

opening up the (1788), 248-249. 

the, in 1790, 248; in 1801, 268. 

coal found in the, 249. 

discovery of the Oregon Country, 250. 

the Oregon question, 378. 

what was thought of the Oregon Coun- 
try, 379- 

Whitman's journey, 380. 

our claim to the Oregon Country, 250, 

the Oregon treaty, 381. 

whisky insurrection in Pennsylvania, 

254- 
Indian land cessions in the (1795), 253. 
Indian land cessions in the, in general. 

See Indians, 
new states formed in the, 228, 25S. 

See names of western states, 
suffrage in the new states of the, 259, 

271, 561. 
the Kentucky nullification resolutions, 

264. 
purchase of the province of Louisiana, 

272-274. 
Fort Dearborn (Chicago) erected, 270. 
communication with the, 249, 268, 270, 

279, 280, 320, 32S, 347, 528-531, 549, 

596. 
could the Union hope to retain the, 270, 

379, 529. 
expedition of Lewis and Clark, 276. 
Pike's explorations in the Northwest, 

277. 
the Burr conspiracy and the, 280. 
Tecumseh in the, 289. 
the, favors tlie War of 18 12, 291. 
the, and the War of 1812, 291, 293, 296, 

297. 299, 307- 
Monroe's tour in the, 308. 
question of slavery in the, 227, 275, 313, 

316, 362, 371, 381, 389, 390, 398-401, 

409, 416, 421, 422, 429, 473. 
the, and the Fugitive Slave Act, 402. 
Russia and the Pacific coast, 322, 323. 
the, and the tariff, 323, 333. 
the first steamboat in the, 279. 
the National Road and the, 278, 320, 

327. 
the Erie Canal and the, 329. 
the Ohio and the, 329. 
the " Great Western March," 329. 
first railway in the, 347. 
the Pacific'Railway. 420, 52S-530. 
effects of the Pacific Railway, 530, 531. 
advantages offered by the, 330. 
growth of, in population, 330. 
the, and President Jackson, 336. 
speculation in the, 354, 359, 425, 540- 
agricultural inventions and the, 355, 

409, 610. 



West, the Mormons in the, 360, 361, 427, 
428, 552, 557, 569. 

the annexation of Texas, 371. 

the, and different treaties, 226, 258, 304, 

370, 381, 38S, 535. 
the telegraph and telephone in the, 377, 

378. 
conquest of California, 387. 
Mexican land cessions in the, 388. 
discovery of gold in California, 391, 392. 
Clay's compromise measures and the, 

399-401. 
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 409-414. 
the struggle for Kansas, 414-416. 
John Brown in Kansas, 416. 
the Dred Scott case and the, 424. 
discovery of silver, petroleum, and 

natural gas in the, 426. 
Lincoln-Douglas campaign in the, 429. 
the, and the Civil War. See Battles, 
the "Army of the West," in the grand 

review, 516. 
admission of western states. See names 

of states, 
purchase of Alaska, 526. 
the ■' Farmers' AUiance " and the, 541. 
the " Grangers " in the, 541. 
the " Populists" in the, 541, 570. 
railway strikes in the, 546, 573. 
impro\ement of the Mississippi, 549. 
land appropriated for schools, 330. 
recovery of public lands in the, 556. 
free schools in the, 227, 330. 
cheap land in the, 330, 596. 
religious freedom guaranteed in the 

Northwest, 227. 
centennial celebrations in, 559. 
opening of Oklahoma, 561. 
the, and woman suffrage, 561. 
the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, 

the St. Louis Exposition, 609. 
flour mills of the, 141. 
mines, grain and stock farms, 576, 597. 
the " Commonweal " and other " indus- 
trial armies," 573. 
the " New West," 531, 542, 576, 596, 

597- 

great farms of the, 576. 

food products of the, 576, 597, 610. 

railways and the, 596. 

no frontier line in 1890, 567. 
West Indies, commerce with, 180, 240, 304, 

333,338. 
West Virginia organized, 448. 

admitted, 448. 
Whigs of the Revolution, 194. 

rise of the modern, 246, 356. 

victory of, in 1840, 366. 

death of the, 407. 

See Political Parties. 
Whisky rebellion (1794), 254. 

used as currency, 254. 

ring, 540. 
Whitefield in Georgia, 134. 
Whitman, Dr., and Oregon, 3S0. 
Whitney invents the cotton gin, 251. 
" Wilderness," the, in 1801, 268. 
Williams, Roger, driven from Massachu- 
setts, 80, 81. 



LRBip'26 



INDEX Ivii 



Williams, Roger, settles Providence. 112. World's Fair (1876), 542. 

establishes entire religious liberty, 113. (1893), 571- 

secures a liberal charter for Rhode (1904). 609. 

Island, 114. Writs of Assistance, 179. 

Wilmot Proviso, the, 390. Wyoming admitted, 561. 
Winthrop, Governor, 76. 

Wireless telegraphy, 607. " X.Y.Z." Papers, 260. 
Wisconsin admitted, 396. 

Witchcraft in Salem, 91, 92. Yancey's " Scarlet Letter," 428. 

Witherspoon, John, 66. York, the Duke of, seizes New Netherland, 
Wolfe takes Quebec (1759), 151. 55- 

Woman suffrage, 391, 561, 599. seizes Delaware, 116. 

Women in the Revolution, 221. Yorktown, capture of, 224. 

in the Civil War, 454. 

what fifty years have done for, 599. Zenger upholds the freedom of the press, 
World's Fair (1853), 408. 60, 



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